Do goof balls go to heaven?

Let me be blunt. Sometimes, I am an idiot, a goof ball who demonstrates little understanding of what it means to live the right way or do the right thing, much less live for God. I have often been hypercritical and hypocritical. My attitude is often not what it ought to be, and only God know how many times I’ve entangled in ideas and actions that belie my supposed commitment to higher things.

How can I even speak about things like truth and faith? What gives me the right to even mention God’s name? After all, if you were to interview my wife and kids, if you could read my mind, if you truly knew how foolishly I can behave, you’d notice a great dichotomy between my interests/claims and the real me. Can blockheads and spiritual hypocrites make it to heaven?

Well, first of all, I should be clear. I’m neither advocating hypocrisy nor promoting a relativistic “do what you want” attitude. At least, that’s not my intent. Indeed, even a cursory reading of the Bible reveals God’s distaste for the inauthentic and fake. We cannot make excuses, in other words.

On the other hand, human experience teaches us how inconsistent we can appear and how flimsy our integrity can be. So, what we are to make of these matters? How can we do justice to the fact that we really cannot yield to an excuse-making agenda, a naive assumption that the way we live doesn’t matter, while simultaneously acknowledging and living with the realization that even the best of human beings are just that, human?

To be honest, I haven’t worked all of this out. Indeed, I tend to think that we simply need to live with the tension. That is, we must hold these self-evident realties together, somehow living with our own faults and inconsistencies yet not succumbing to our worst impulses. Or, to put it another way, we must not allow our wrongful tendencies to go unchallenged, but we also have to accept the truth that we are exactly the type of people whom God came to rescue.

Can spiritually and morally flawed creatures make it to heaven? Yes, I think they can, and I sure hope they can. Indeed, a strong argument can be made that it is specifically the unqualified and unconditional love of God that motivates our efforts to grow as human beings. When we recognize that God’s care for us doesn’t waver, when we realize that it was for people like us that Jesus came in the first place, when we face up to the fact that God embraces us even when we have embraced the things he hates–we are set free and given the impetus for following him. This, I think, is what Scripture is referring to when it says things like, “the love of Christ compels us” (2 Corinthians 5:14).

What’s the bottom line? Resist improper inclinations, and own up to both your imperfections and poor choices. But, even as you “come clean,” always remember that he loves you still, despite your inconsistencies and mess ups. Go to him. Look to him. Allow your thoughts to take you to that place from long ago when the only perfect person who ever lived cared about you so much that he was willing to absorb every wrong you’d ever commit. Our Maker sent his Son to reclaim all who are willing to entrust their lives and destinies to him, and he accepts even goof balls like me.