basically good.

I am just starting a study on the book, "Prodigal God", with a group of people at church. We kicked off our study by watching a 40 minute video by the writer of the book, Tim Keller. It. was. captivating.

My whole life, I've been "basically good". I know I'm a terrible sinner, but I could point my finger at lots of different poeple and say, "Well I'm not as bad as they are!" I have grown up and in the last several years have understood that sin is sin, and I am just like everyone else.

This movie took that thought one step deeper. It made the point to say that the prodigal son parable has 2 people that we can identify with. The younger son who ran off with his inheritance, squandered it, and came crawling back for forgiveness. The other character is the elder son, who "did everything right" in life, but led a Godless life and ultimately took the stance of "I did everything right, where is my party" attitdue.

Those of us who were raised in Christian homes as children probably fit the bill of the eldest brother. I know I do (and am trying to make that did). Being basically good is dangerous because it's easy to begin to act like a person who doesn't need a Savior. A person who can "save" themselves doesn't need Jesus. The movie closed by saying that we need to realize that we can't do good on our own. We need to repent of the "I'm basically good" attitude and realize that the things that we do in life that are right and correct, ultimately come from having Christ in our lives.

It sounds kind of weird to repent for being good. It's more like repenting for the attitude that we display as we "congratulate" ourselves after making a good decision.

I'm going to let this hang in the air a bit and start the book.

TBA- more thoughts on trying not to be the eldest brother!