Fake it 'til you make it: How believing we are saved could be what saves us

Dear fellow sufferers of chronic Catholic guilt,

How would your life look different if you were positive you were ‘saved?’

If you trusted God so much that you knew in your soul that you would rejoin your Creator one day? That the thought of dying tomorrow brought you peace instead of horrendous anxiety and uncertainty (like it often does for me)? That you believed you were already the person God wanted you to be? 

How would you behave differently if you didn't feel the need to worry about getting hit by a bus with a mortal sin on your soul, or of Jesus coming back when you’re on your third margarita at a work function, or that your soul might only be salvageable on specific Wednesdays after 4pm when you actually manage to make it to confession?

What if today - this new day - you chose to fully embrace and believe that Heaven isn’t an ‘if’ but a ‘when’? That all that you did bad yesterday, last week, last year - is forgiven and gone.

I don’t know about you, but that thought makes me want to run towards Jesus, not away. That thought - if I can truly embrace it for today, if I can choose to ignore the anxious thoughts and the Enemy in my head that loves to remind me that that technically may not be true - fills me with inherent serenity and gratitude and most importantly - a desire to do better.

I believe change comes from love and acceptance, not guilt and shame. We simply can’t walk around believing that God is constantly disappointed in us. How heavily that can wear on our souls. And how many times, as mortal creatures, do you suppose we will we be motivated to keep trying to please someone we perceive as constantly upset with us? No, a thought like that cannot come from God.

Disclaimer: I’m not suggesting that we ignore or not make plans to atone for our past sins. I’m merely offering an alternative to the guilt we feel when we haven’t been doing our best. A ‘fake it till you make it’ approach, if you will. Something to help us keep going, not give up and relax into our sin. And if we can embrace this thought today in this moment, perhaps we’ll have a natural inclination to shift our thoughts and behaviors - and over time, our hearts - towards God’s will for us. 

In other words, if we believe we’re loved and saved today - regardless of our behavior yesterday - maybe over time, we’ll start to become the person God has called us to be. 

I think the Enemy uses religion against us sometimes. He preys upon the flawed human mind and causes us to lose sight of the point of it all.

Evil says ‘look at all these rules you’ve broken. Look at how you aren’t measuring up to others who claim to follow Jesus. Are you so self-deluded to think that the God of the Universe isn’t completely exhausted with your empty promises to do better when you never do? Name 1 thing you’ve done for others lately. You can’t change. You’re too far behind. You’re doomed. Unless you find it in your selfish, broken self to completely change your character, way of life, goals & relationships - God won’t help you. You aren’t following the rules, you aren’t even in the game. Give up, you lost.’

Sinisterly, Evil confuses us most when there are tiny truths involved. Following God’s Word and commandments - doing His Will or at least seeking to do so to the best of our ability - IS our aim as Christians and humans, is it not?

But the twist that Evil puts on our souls is that it convinces us that these ‘rules’ are oppressive, impossible to follow, and that if we don’t follow them perfectly or at least near-perfectly, we’re doomed. That obedience alone is the point of religion, our existence and our eternity. That if we don’t say the right prayers, help the right people, behave the right way in all circumstances, then what's the point? Existence starts to appear black and white. Follow or die. This is a flawed, guilt-ridden perspective that I feel completely misses the point and purpose of said ‘rules' and causes us to hide from God when we need His grace most.

C.S. Lewis once said - “We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort.”

These ‘rules’ we feel obligated and compelled to follow are not God trying to exert control and create a bunch of obedient robots, nor were they put in place to shame us into compliance. They’re our roadmap to the kind of character we ought to have, our roadmap to becoming the person God wants us to be, to live the most authentic versions of our souls. They’re our guide towards Heaven and relationship with God, not ‘obey or die’ orders. They are more than rules. They are the ‘way.’

Today, I choose to lean on the idea that I walk in God’s favor, that I am not the sins I have committed, that He loves me exactly as I am today, and that perhaps - even moreso than my perfect obedience - He wants my heart.

“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” - C.S. Lewis