I grew up in a Christian denomination where I got the impression that I never could tell, for certain, where I stood with God at any given time. True or not, what I heard, was that –if I died with unconfessed serious sin on my conscience, I wouldn’t be heading for heaven. It was kind of like Monopoly: My last step could land me on the “Go to Jail,” square: "do not pass Go, Do not collect $200." In my mind, religion was spelled “D-O,” but I was never completely confident that I was doing enough. In contrast: I grew up in a big family, a loving home where I never questioned my parents’ love or was unsure of where I stood with them. My mom and dad always clearly conveyed their unwavering love for us kids. I knew that I could count on my parents’ love just as much as I could count on the sun coming up tomorrow. The bible uses a number of analogies to describe God’s love for us, including describing His love as being like a parent’s love, but that analogy breaks down in our culture where a father executes his 15 year-old son, or a mother prostitutes her 5 year-old. The only accurate model of God’s love that has stood the test of time is the example of Jesus who the scriptures say is “the exact representation of God’s being.” The best example of that is Jesus on the cross: Two others, both criminals, were led out to be executed with him. When they came to a place called The Skull, they nailed him to the cross… Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing… One of the criminals hanging beside him scoffed, “So you’re the Messiah, are you? Prove it by saving yourself—and us, too, while you’re at it!” But the other criminal protested, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:32-43, NLT) On the cross, Jesus shows us that true love is provision. God’s power is shown in His care for us, not his control over us. Jesus said that God shows his love for us in that He provides for us physically through His creation, “sends He causes the sun to rise on good people and on evil people, and he sends rain to those who do right and to those who do wrong. It’s been nicknamed “common grace” everyone gets good they don’t deserve. But God’s care is never shown more clearly than in Jesus’ voluntary death on our behalf, as Paul so eloquently puts it: "God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all." (Romans 8:3-4a, The Message). At 16, in reading the bible I discovered for myself that true Christianity is spelled "D-O-N-E." That God had done for me, for everyone of us, what I, we, you could not do for ourselves: make things right between us and God. Problem is: I personally prefer to have some sort of tangible benchmarks to judge how I'm doing with God... like my performance. However, I'm consistently disappointed by it. My flaws, faults, and failures are a daily reminder that -no matter how much effort I put into it- I'm missing the mark. I'm not perfect, and God is. As disconcerting as it often is, I am left no choice but to humbly acknowledge my faults, and abandon myself to God's promise to forgive me. I must trust that God's mercies are new every morning. That's true Christianity