By Titto Thomas

An old miserly lady died and reached the gates of heaven. This lady when she was alive never did a good thing. At the gate an angel of the Lord asked her “What makes you worthy to enter here”. The lady recollected her days on the earth and she couldn’t think of anything worthwhile to tell the angel, she had not done one good deed, but suddenly she hit gold. She immediately looked up at the angel’s face and replied “ There was this poor, hungry beggar who had come knocking at my house. Feeling sympathy for the man, I gave him 10 cents.” The angel replied “ Alright let me go tell God about this, wait here”. After a couple of minutes the angel returned with something in his hand. Looking at the lady he said “ Here is your 10 cents and that’s the way to hell!!!

The gist of this hilarious story has a very important implication. We all think that there are at least some things right in our lives. We tell ourselves “We are ok, we ain’t that bad”. We use it as our trump card all the time, our song of consolation. But how good is good and how bad is bad. During the tribunal of a formal Rwandan general convicted for genocide, the judge, after reading through his crime of raping, torturing, murdering and disfiguring men, woman and children, asked him how he could do all of this. The general replied “ I believe I was doing right”.

No we might not have done all that the above general did, but does that makes us perfect creatures. I did a particular subject in my third semester of engineering called thermodynamics. For the first internals 99% of the class failed and as we were discussing the results very proudly remarking how a particular student with 30 out of hundred was the highest in our hostel, another student from a different branch remarked “ Hey all of you guys failed, then why do u care who did better than the other”.

In our personal lives too when we have done good we feel very confident to enter God’s presence and I believe this is the biggest mistake we can make when we approach God. The bible says that there is nothing good in us, the implication then being that God does not expect anything good from us. Remember there is nothing good that we can do that makes us worthy for God. It was his doing that made us righteous. Even the faith that we had to get saved was his gift. Where then is room for boasting, for exalting yourself.

A prayer I leave with you. “Father your word says that all our righteousness is like filthy rags before you, so I come to you not because of what I have done but I am clothing myself with Jesus who is my righteousness. I realize that there is nothing good in me, if there is anything good in me it is because you have put it there. Amen”