Sometimes I feel like a ping-pong ball, getting whacked back and forth between the paddles of sin and holiness. I stand in the mirror and see 75% dude and 25% wimp.

I pray that God would dice my 25% and remake it into spiritual resilience. Unlike Abraham, a man of steel, I so often fail the test when God says, “Offer your son, your only son whom you love.” I start up the mountain and might even get to the point of tying him to the altar and raising the knife. But then, the wimpy 25% takes over, my hand trembles, my sinful lethargy gets active at the worst moment, and I drop the knife.

Though my days are tabulated in God’s book (Ps 139:16), they ain’t over yet and by God’s muscle (Eph 6:10), I can grow by His strength. As humans we weep and whine over our one failure and forget how many thousands of victories God brought us. But that’s not a good enough reason for ignoring the failure. The failure is forgiven and punished in full by Christ already, but God still wants godliness and thus, we get back up, scrape of the grime, and rejoin the race!

Fail the test, and you’re forgiven. Win the test, and you grow. That’s a deal not even vacuum salesmen can boast!