“This A is not an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into.”
From The Art of Possibility
In the quotation above, Rosamund and Ben Zander encourage us to give ourselves and those we teach As. The point is to remove the comparative measurements that too often stifle and paralyze us.
To make a theological analogy, the Zanders encourage us to use grades as an act of sanctification rather justification. Justification of course is “an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins,” according to the shorter Westminister Catechism. No amount work on our part will earn us that pardon, and it doesn’t matter what the quality of that work is or how long we do it for. Sanctification, on the other hand, is a process no less of grace “whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness.”
I will be meditating on how this distinction should work itself out in my assessments and the joy, love, and peace that accompany the work of the Spirit in our lives.