Spiritual Metrics

As I would assume most businesses would do, our company "runs the number"s before and after each one of our projects to make sure that we are actually making money on the work that we do. Going into a job, we make sure that we are going to make money based upon the scope of work. After a job is finished, we check to make sure this actually happened. Obviously, this is very common business practice. I can't imagine a successful business skipping this analysis. It's a proactive approach that is evidence for care and concern.

I have noticed over the past few years that this doesn't necessarily happen in our spiritual lives, but it should. Most of the time, I simply go throughout my life trying to follow God's commands, but never measuring myself up against what God calls us to be. It's easy to do this because it is so often reiterated in the New Testament that we do not gain salvation or the forgiveness of sins through good works. But, this doesn't mean that we should live our spiritual life without goals, and hold ourselves accountable to them. God doesn't want us to be so laissez faire in life that we assume God forgives all mistakes without keeping our hearts and minds in the game. It's an easy thing to do, because we know that in the back of our mind, God will wipe the slate clean if our spiritual financial statements show a loss.

The christian life is more than accepting God, then trying to live as good people--with God having forgiven all past, present, and future mistakes. When the Holy Spirit is in you, it is the metric that keeps us accountable. It's the source that tells us when we are off our budget, if you will. We can't live in ignorance to this. So, as we go into the upcoming Christmas season and into yet another year, let's hold ourselves to the goal of becoming more and more like Christ everyday, and continually measure ourselves up against improvements we can make. God will always forgive our shortcomings, but accountability to God shows a true care and love for Him who created us.