If Christianity is about anything, it is about forgiveness. Christianity is not about getting better. It is not about tips and techniques to help you yell at your children less, become financially secure, or become more fulfilled in life. And it is not about feeling better. It is not about warm fuzzies, or sentimental sayings, or being nice to people. Nor it is not about knowing more, or better. It is not about learning more or thinking better, having thoughts or even beliefs that are true. Christianity is not about doing better or feeling better or thinking better. It is about being forgiven. It is nothing more (or nothing less) than a lifetime of living out the implications of our redemption, of the fact that God knows all of our failures and fears, all of our doubt and confusion, all of the hurt that we have absorbed and all the hurt that we have dished out, and yet he is still with us. He doesn’t abandon us. He loves us and he forgives us.

The problem is that too often forgiveness doesn’t just seem like enough. For those of us who are redeemed, who are believers in Christ, there is this nagging feeling that tells us there is something more, something we are missing. We’ve grown up, gotten married, and had (or are having) our kids. We’ve got a job, bought a house, and are living our far-too-busy life. We’re in the church (some of us have been there since we were kids), and we do our Christian things. And then, if we are quiet enough, long enough, something from the back of our heart nags at us. “Why am I still struggling with the same sins and hurts that I’ve always struggled with? I should be better than I am by now. Is this all there is? I thought that by the time I got to this age there would be more.”

I mean, we like God—mostly. He seems nice enough. Usually he leaves us alone and we bump along dealing with life’s difficulties as best we can. But we think that he’s supposed to do more for us. He’s supposed to make us do better or feel better or think better. Forgiveness is fine, but what we really want is kids that make us proud, or at least don’t irritate us so much. We want a better paying job and a boss that respects us. We want a bigger home or a new car. We want to quit losing our temper, we want to quit falling to temptation, we want to quit being so depressed all the time. We want the guilt or the abuse of our past to go away. And what does God do? He promises forgiveness, and we think to ourselves, “That’s nice, but is that all?” Too often forgiveness just doesn’t seem like enough.

When we feel forgiven by God, however, it affects everything. Worship becomes deeper and stronger and more meaningful. The Word of God becomes sweeter than honey, because it tells us over and over of God’s forgiveness. The Spirit of God becomes that best friend whose intimacy we cannot live without. We wouldn’t think of missing opportunities to be with God’s people because they live out the presence of Christ and the love of God before us. People enjoy being around us, not because we have our lives together, but because we don’t and it doesn’t seem to matter. We’ve become convinced that what matters is being forgiven. People feel encouraged, not drained, when they are with us. We can give our lives away in service to others because we don’t need to take anything from them. Serving others becomes second-nature because we have all that we need—namely, forgiveness—in God through Christ.

Christianity is about forgiveness and grace and mercy and Jesus and the cross. Our task is to believe that forgiveness (and grace and mercy and Jesus and the cross) is enough.