If you’ve ever visited a gambling casino, you know that whenever someone has a big win on one of the machines there are often flashing lights and a kind of music to celebrate it.
Of course, there’s no celebrating a loss, big or little—it makes sense—you can hardly entice someone to keep playing and betting if you blast out the news of their losing to everybody within sight and earshot.
It’s really odd, but when it comes to our religious practice and faith, we sort of do the opposite. We make a bigger fuss about failures than successes.
What’s the first thing a child learns about, the first thing that gets a lot of attention? Why, it’s failure, reprimand, and perhaps punishment.
From early childhood most of us were made aware, sometimes vividly, of our failures, of our sins! And we were taught how to go to church and confess our sins and seek forgiveness.
There was rarely any special fussing about good things and successes—they didn’t send us to the priest to speak about that but to speak about the bad things, the sins!
If you were being coached in preparation for the Olympics, the whole emphasis would have been on getting things right, not reminding you that you got them wrong.
Why do we attach so much importance to defects and sinning? Why do we give so much more recognition to failure compared to the attention that success should get?
A child almost learns inverted values, getting more recognition and attention through failing than through succeeding!
Sure, God punishes, but, most important of all, he forgives! We seem to forget that and that we are celebrating his love and forgiveness in receiving communion.
Were a special music playing and everyone applauding what we did, we might feel a lot better about our religious behavior!
Much of the Bible dwells on failures and losing and their consequences—but also on heroism, good deeds, and successes.
It’s sad if our childhood memories are mostly of our failures and weaknesses and not of successes and unexpected blessings.
In our contemporary society, there’s a much greater tolerance for certain behaviors, for certain “sins,” than there used to be—and often it’s about something not to be unthinkingly dismissed.
To be brutely honest, we have to admit that sometimes sin gets far more, and better, attention than goodness! And, sadly, there are children who get more attention and recognition over their misbehaviors than their virtues.
Remember the story of the good thief and the bad at the crucifixion of Jesus. The focus wasn’t just on the track record of each but on the present and actual attitude and behavior of each. And, as we know so well, Jesus promised Paradise to one of them—the one, who, in spite of his past record, repented, sought, and received forgiveness and mercy from the dying Lord!
It’s important to believe in the mercy of God, and it’s important to believe in the repentance of sinners—Godlike you might consider it!
The mercy of God and the repentance of sinners can both be very surprising to us, and both should be welcomed for what they are—even though there’s no flashing lights and a kind of music to celebrate each of them!
Stop giving more attention and recognition to losing than winning. After all, it’s God’s mercy and love that deserves drums and trumpets, not your failures!
27 August 2023