Monday, May 08, 2006

Life is a first draft

I found this article at Brandywine Books, via Wittingshire.

These are the words that jumped off the screen at me:
Life itself is like a first draft. One of the sources of the global sense of inadequacy that's bedeviled me all my life is my belief that I should be able to do everything right the first time.

Oh.my.goodness. Reading that was one of those "Is he looking over my shoulder or reading my mind?" moments. This has been a struggle for me as long as I can remember.

He continues:
None of us is James Bond, sauntering through our adventures in the best clothes, never putting a foot wrong and always knowing what wine to order. In fact, even the guys who play James Bond aren’t James Bond. They sometimes stumble when they step off the curb (especially after ordering that wine), and they sometimes spill salad dressing on their shirt fronts, and they sometimes say things they didn’t mean to say and wish to heaven they could take back. James Bond doesn’t do those things, because if he does the director just yells “Cut!” and they re-shoot the scene. But you and I don’t have directors or re-shoots. We’re Reality TV, and our mistakes go on our permanent records.

But we’re all in the same boat. Much as I might believe it, there are no James Bonds out there having their lives simultaneously edited for them. The doctrine of salvation by grace, not works, is grounded in the fact that God Himself recognizes, and has pity for, this fact.


All I can say is, "PHEW!"

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