"I've been really, really good this year!"

Barry and I love to quote this line from the Simpson's. Lisa Simpson wanted a pony, and when her parents tried to dissuade her from the idea, she said, "But I've been really, really good this year!" We are used to the reward system, aren't we? We reward kids when they are good. As adults, we hope to be rewarded with things like a raise, a promotion, or a vacation.

But I wonder how often we carry this mentality into our spiritual lives and think that maybe God owes us something for good behavior. Today, as I was reading more in Colossians and in the commentary, it struck me that all kinds of things--even good things--can trick us into thinking that we have somehow earned the good standing with God that only Christ provides. If we get up every morning and religiously follow a devotional or prayer time, do we somehow feel better about ourselves? If we volunteer in church or in the community, are we tempted to feel that we've been "really, really good"? Heck, what if it isn't even a spiritual matter? Are we tempted to feel just a tad better than others if we follow a strict diet or exercise program? Or how about if we read and study to keep ourselves well informed and educated?

There's a scripture that says, "The heart is deceitful about all things." Seems a bit negative, doesn't it? But then you realize that there really are a thousand ways we deceive ourselves into thinking that we've been "really, really good," and lose our focus on the only one who can make us truly good. Disciplines are important--don't get me wrong. But are we leaning on them in an unhealthy way, or are we taking an unhealthy pride in them? Disciplines are a fitting response, but they don't save our souls.

On Memorial Day, we watched Saving Private Ryan. The film is a potent reminder of the weighty gift of grace. Larry showed a clip from the film on Sunday and noted in his sermon that when the dying captain said to Private Ryan, "Earn this," he imposed a horrible burden on the young man that no one could live up to. I agree. We can never earn the sacrifice paid by those young men and thousands like them who died on the beaches of Europe and throughout the world during WWII. How can you put a price on what they gave to pay for our freedoms? But I think there may be another way of looking at what the captain asked of Private Ryan. I think in a way, he wasn't telling Ryan to earn the sacrifice. I think he was telling him to live a life that was somehow a fitting response to their sacrifice. In other words, don't squander the gift of life and freedom that you have been given at such a great cost. Live a life that matters. Live a life that makes a difference. It's an appropriate response to what you have been given.

And that's the difference. We can be disciplined in many ways--spiritual, physical, intellectual--but if what we are doing flows from an attempt to earn grace rather than from a grateful response to a grace already given, then we don't understand that grace, and we cheapen it. Our disciplines say, in effect, that the sacrifice wasn't enough, and we have to add to it. This seems to be the thing the Colossians missed that Paul wanted to correct. Don't put your trust in your spirituality or in your spiritual or physical disciplines. Put it in the complete sacrifice that has already been made on your behalf--and then go live a life that is spiritually rich and disciplined out of love and gratitude for what has already been done for you, so that you can, in turn, give to others.