Am I Good?

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked him.
“No one is good except God alone.”

Passerby asks, “Helder, are you sinless”?

“Your question invites me to understand that you have a very different relationship to personal imperfection than I do. And it betrays your belief that your god is concerned about your perfection. She is not. If I may ask, who gifted you with your understanding? Is it serving you well, and what is the fruit of this gift to you?”

“The husband of my mother, a Baptist preacher, says that his spiritual gift is sinlessness; that the perfection of our souls and bodies is the supreme good work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and that the Holy Spirit is like a dove sitting on our shoulder so long as we are perfect, but flies away when we sin.”

While I have no desire to come between you and the husband of your mother, it’s like the Apostle said, “When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” An adult follower of Jesus makes adult choices, and some choices are, of course, better choices than others.

I make no claim to perfection nor even a passing interest in it, although, in my infancy, it was of prime concern. My interest is in being human, a son of a human being, and a lover of God, as Jesus demonstrated he was. I am certain that the husband of your mother would brand me an apostate, a heretic for it. So be it.