The Right Answer

A boarding house brother once said,
“Amy Joy, I don’t think you ever sin.”

He wasn’t kidding.

Filled with confused thoughts of
Sins of omission and commission,
And dead sure that I wasn’t perfectly
Christ in every word, thought, and deed,
I vaguely muttered something like,
“You have no idea,” then

Spent years looking inward, weighing
Motivations, thoughts, actions.

It was nasty, exhausting, brutal,
But I wanted to be like Christ,
And any price seemed too little.

A friend said to me one day, “I think
I’d rather just look at Jesus.”

A new thought. Look at Him, not me.

A preacher said to me one day,
“If you can’t save yourself,
Why think you can perfect yourself?”

(For those who speak Christianese:
You didn’t justify yourself;
You can’t sanctify yourself.)

That was freedom.

So was my house brother right, and I don’t sin?
That’s not the right question.

I am the righteousness of God in Christ.
That’s the right answer.