52. He's Not Surprised By My Failures

John 13:38

I didn’t pick up a golf club until I was 30 years old and when I finally did try the game, I assumed I would be awesome at it. I mean, I’m fairly athletic, so how hard could it be, right? Spoiler alert: I sucked. Golf pros make it look easy, but I quickly found out that this game is a highly complicated amalgam of physics on-the-fly and very specific muscle memories resulting from countless hours of repetition. In other words, it’s not a game you can pick up at age 30 and expect to be good at. I was surprised with how bad I was, but none of my golfing friends were. I think deep down most of us believe that when we do something, say something or think something that’s wrong, God is so surprised and disappointed with us that we can’t approach Him. Like our sin is such an offensive shock to Him, that our best bet is to grovel in a guilt-ridden self hatred. Here’s the thing though: God already knows when you’re going to sin. He already knows everything. You have never shocked or surprised Him one time in your life. He knows us, through and through. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, He looked one of His best friends in the eye and told the guy how and when his next sin would come, and loved the guy anyway. I love Jesus because He already knew everything bad I would ever do (including stuff I haven’t even thought of yet) and still He decided to come down here and die for me. He knows you better than you do, and He loves you more than you could imagine.