Doing Our Best

         It’s Thanksgiving Day in the US. I hope you’re having a day filled with joy. We have much to be thankful for as well. But something that’s been stirring in me lately has filtered my thankfulness in a new direction.

There’s an old joke about a little kid coming out of church and looking worried and his mother asks what’s up. The kid looks around because he doesn’t want to be overheard and asks his Mom “Why does God think we’re butt dust?” He had listened to the pastor speaking about Psalm 103: 13-14 where it says that God “remembers that we are but dust.”

          Here’s what Psalm 103:13-14 says,

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are but dust.

          I love that story, but that little misunderstanding leads us into something profound. This verse reveals something deep and something for which I am deeply grateful. God knows we’re doing our best here. (You might say that line out loud so your soul can register the importance of that truth.) God knows we’re doing our best here.

          That’s way deeper than me thinking how to be better, truer, more courageous for God. That speaks about the depth of my heart’s recognition of my failures, my struggles, my anxieties over today and tomorrow, my worries about food, shelter, income, frustrations and pain. That says that God knows the depth of my heart and my desire to be worthy of love. He sees what gets in the way of that. This reveals Jesus to me, that Jesus is the deepest expression of God’s recognition, his inherent knowledge of us. Jesus is God saying, “I understand. I’m with you in this. You don’t have to try to be worthy. I already love you.”

          As you enter into your own day of giving thanks, I encourage you to remind yourself that God knows you’re doing your best with what you have. God knows we’re but dust… and within that is a deeper truth. The word we translate “dust,” is actually the word for “soil.” A farmer friend once told me that dirt is what you wash off… soil is what you grow something in. God knows we’re the soil where his love can grow.

Blessings,

Geoff