The importance of being a miserable sinner!
Part 5: Positive change for those who know they are sinners
Thus, there seems to be a fundamental discord between the Christian view and some modern secular views of life. The Christian considers that life is about living up to a standard, while modern ideologies insist on complete freedom from any standard. The secular view seems to be extremely brittle. While the Christian happily accepts their status as a sinner, and embraces a way of life that enables them to come to terms with their mistakes, repent, try to make amends, and try to do better in future, the secular person seems to be just asserting that whatever they happen to be like, and whatever they do, must be deemed to be acceptable. There doesn’t seem to be any means under modern ideology for people to accept that they are not perfect, without thinking that they are therefore not acceptable. This seems to generate a great deal of anger. If you cannot accept any criticism at all without feeling that you are not accepted in society, then there will be a tendency to attack anyone who raises any queries about how you live. This is exactly what we see happening in society today, where intolerant outrage is the order of the day. The Christian idea of being a loved sinner gives a much more robust and beneficial approach to life, for it gives a ready mechanism for understanding that you can be far from perfect, but still fully accepted, and, in fact, more than accepted: completely and utterly loved.
Spiritual Devotion 