How Was Your Day?

“How was your day?” That’s the question my wife and I often ask each other in the evening as our days wind to a close.  I’ve noticed that my answer to that question each day focuses on how many tasks I accomplished, or on the quality of the work that I’ve done.  On a good day I may tell her about a meaningful hospital visit, and on a day that didn’t go quite as well I may describe how I’ve fallen behind on the things I want to get done that week.  In other words, I evaluate the quality of my days according to how much and how well I worked.  And because my life is composed of the days that I live, this means that I consider how good of a life I am living based on how productive I am.

The grace of Jesus Christ sets us free from “works righteousness:” the belief that in order to be set right with God we must obey his law perfectly.  As we read in Ephesians, “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (2:8-9).  The redeeming work of Christ, through his death on the cross and his resurrection from the tomb, has opened the way for us to enjoy the fullness of a loving and blessed relationship with God.  We do not need to prove ourselves to God, and we do not need to earn our salvation.  We need simply to put our trust in Jesus, and God sees us as righteous and holy.

This is the core of our Christian faith.  And yet, I find myself slipping into a sort of works-righteousness that is based not upon how well I follow the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law, but upon how well I am able to make progress on my to-do list.  A “good day” means that I’ve scratched some things off the list, and a “bad day” means that I’ve fallen behind and wasted opportunities to achieve the goals I’ve set for myself.  On the theoretical, spiritual level I wholeheartedly believe that my worth comes from the loving favor of Jesus Christ.  But on the day-to-day practical level, I live as though my value as a person depends upon what I’ve done.

Certainly, God wants us to be productive and hard-working, just as he wants us to follow his commands and obey his will.  But he considers us to be “precious and honored” in his sight (Isaiah 43:4), and to be his beloved children (1 John 3:1) because of what Christ has done on our behalf, and not upon anything we have done or ever could do for ourselves.  His love for us does not depend upon what we do, or upon how much we do.

If you’re like me, it’s time for us to redefine what makes for a “good day.”  Instead of evaluating our lives by what we have accomplished, we can consider instead how much of God’s love we have experienced.  On a “bad day,” our struggles and preoccupations may cloud his glory from our sight.  But on a “good day,” we recognize his goodness in every whisper, in every shadow, and every stirring of our hearts. On a good day, we realize how deeply our Father loves us, and we know the presence of the Spirit within us.