Have you ever felt like you are trying your best to be a Christian? Or have you heard someone said that he or she will try their best to be a Christian? God deserves your best, isn't it? Then why trying your best is not adequate to have a fulfilled spiritual life? First and foremost there is a misconception about our best. Somehow, human beings associate success and achievements to hard work and more so hard work with 100% effort. This conception started at a young age at school. We were told we did not work hard enough or we did not give our best during revision and hence we did not achieve the results that we desired. This is partially correct but inadequate. One example is that certain subjects are not based on memory but analytical skills and some students just have not developed those skills. Another misconception is that our best is the standard God measures us by. Did we pray hard enough? Did we study the word hard enough? Or did we memorized the word enough? All these are good things and we blame ourselves for not doing those good things enough and hence did not develop a deep spiritual life. Faith is not trying your best. Karl Vaters in the Grasshopper Myth wisely stated that God does not desire our best, God desires our all! This means God desires our best and our worst. We are to commit to Him our all. We do not need to go through the list of the weakness of the men of God in the Bible to affirm this. Our relationship with God is no longer a performance-based but willing obedience to God out of love for Him. We can then come to God for help in your weakness or when we have failed.

May we understand that our identity is not based on our performance but the grace of God. May we learn to give God our all rather than trying out best.