Our Spiritual Check Book

Right up front let me say I am no financial genius nor an accountant be (I leave that to my longtime friend Thomas Hammar CPA – Rock Island, IL – see him on the web). But what I am is a man vaguely concerned about the bottom line of my balances in life.

By the grace of God I live with overdraft protection not only at the hand of my Wells Fargo financial assistant and his said, products of protection for my checking account, but I also live with overdraft protection from eternal consequences, lest I stray out of Christ. For both protections I am grateful.

But my presumption upon either safety net is something I cannot indulge. For if and when I do I commit the “great sin” of presumption that David spoke of when approaching an all seeing all knowing God, I am mocking the very covering my providers have installed. And what might that “great sin” of presumption look like in either arena? Not reconciling my check register. Not balancing my books.

You see, because in many cases we hold to some provided safety net of grace, we may find ourselves slack in balancing our books when the regular statements of conviction and exam arrive in our mail. We may simply assume since the bank tells me I have more than I think I do, there should be no reason to reconcile any outstanding checks or debts. And for the most part that may be true, especially when you are in the credit side of the ledger versus the debit side. And the same is true with faith and conscience.

But what about the times when the balance is upside down? I mean really, are you willing to just settle for the fact that the bank has told you, you are short several hundred dollars? And the only reason you didn’t know it sooner was because you have “overdraft protection”; therefore no checks bounced?

Could the same not be said of our faith and conscience when it comes to the bookkeeping with God? I really don’t think God is looking to find errors on a daily basis. Nor do I think He resents His provision of gracious overdraft protection when it comes to our daily misbehavior, but I do think if we are not careful, we can lean way too much upon that said accounting service.

Don’t get me wrong. In Christ, my problem is not SIN. That has been dealt with on the Cross never to assail me again. What my problem is, are the “lies” that continue to foster my misbehavior and thereby force me into the great sin of presumption. Now granted, I am not in heaven one day and hell the next and heaven one day and hell the next, but I am in presumption one day and out of presumption the next. And that is where my concerns rest.

If I am not daily, if not hourly keeping my life under exam, not in an evangelical legalistic OCD way, but in a genuine conscience of honest report, I am prone to then to ignore my provider of divine overdraft protection. And for that I never want to do. Proverbs 3:5-6

So the next time you write a check or draft a debit from your accounts on earth and in heaven, please don’t take for granted the overdraft protection and for goodness sakes, balance your books once in a great while. Okay?

Remember, the unexamined life IS NOT worth living.