large 10

I'm going to a wrestling tournament this weekend. It's 11 teams battling out to win the Big 10.
I wonder who the small team is?
I'm thinking it's Michigan...

It's a pretty brutal tournament. There's a guy who has been the national runner up for two years in a row...easy bet to win the big 10 tournament, right? Or at least to get second...
turns out he's the #4 seed. He was second in the nation...and now he's not even supposed to get second in a league tournament. That's a pretty stacked tournament.

I've seen guys that DOMINATED the state tournament in High School go off to college and just get thrown all over the mat. These guys were awesome, but compared to the best college wrestlers in the nation...they are often average at best. I've seen two and three time NCAA champions not even place in the top five in the Olympic trials - the TRIALS...not the Olympics. This is just a wrestle off to make the team. I've seen a 10 time National champ not even place at the Olympics. It just gets better and better.

The #1 answer to the question: "How does someone get to Heaven" is always - Be a good person. So my question is - How Good is good?

The best person in your high school?
Better than your neighbors? Better than a single mom in Africa that is raising her children on 75 cents a day? Better than the guy that works 40+ hours a week and then volunteers at the orphanage? Better than the folks that have given up big money to go work at soup kitchens?

Is it more of an equation? I've done this many bad things...thought this many bad thoughts...said this many bad things....not done these good things I should have done....
OK, now I'll add those up.....and then I'll add up all the good things I've said, thought, done...and now I'll see which column is bigger?

Better than Hitler? Is that the standard? Or is it better than Mother Theresa?

Compared to a perfect, Holy God...I'm guessing we're like the 3rd grade wrestler that just tries to go out and jump on the other guy...and then tries to enter the Olympics. We think we're pretty good because we can beat most of the other third graders. I wonder how laughable that must be to God. I can almost hear him, "Yeah, they really think I'm going to let them in because they're so 'good', that's probably going to happen" (do you think He's sarcastic?)

Maybe just being good doesn't quite do it.....just maybe.

Thank God (literally) He loves us...