Since Nobody's Perfect, How Good is Good Enough?

Rating: 4 Stars

I snagged this one from church, which I think my pastors will forgive me for, because they know about my obsession with books (I don't mean I stole it, don't worry). It is available for free at our ministry center and I grabbed it for a couple reasons:

1. It is a book.

2. I like books.

3. More seriously, I feel like there is some part of my faith missing, notably because of college. While I grew up attending church, Sunday School, and Confirmation classes, I was not remotely involved in church of any kind all through college or grad school. It was not until almost three years ago that I found a church here that I absolutely LOVE. But I feel like I missed an important part of growing in my faith with that gap in time so I do feel the need to read these more basic texts to help fill in that huge gap.

This little volume is 92 pages and fits in your pocket. It is a super slim book, but covers quite possibly one of the most important questions one could ever ask - what does it take to get to Heaven? It is a pretty intimidating question. I don't feel I have the words to properly convey the author's meaning, so basically this review is going to be some of my most favorite quotes from the book that can help answer the question that the title asks.

Page 80: "In fact, as we will see, Christianity is based on the premise that God laid aside fairness and opted for mercy and grace instead."

Page 82: "The truth is, if you were to sit down and evaluate your divine demands, I think you would conclude, as I have, that you really don't want God to be fair. A truly fair God would give you exactly what you deserve and nothing more. Do you really want God to give you what you deserve?"

Page 83: "Is Christianity fair? Absolutely not. But if you take the Bible seriously, the last thing you would want is for God to be fair. He tried being fair once. Things didn't work out very well."

Page 92: "The word 'gospel' means 'good news'. The good news is that good people don't go to Heaven - forgiven people do. And if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your savior, you are one of those forgiven people."

For those who are confident in their path and have been following it for some time need not pick this one up. It really seems intended, to me, to be for those who are at the beginning. Whether they are completely new, or returning after years away, it is a nice little refresher.