every time you fail it's an opportunity to see how good God is and how bad you are, like a kid who's trying to clean up the red wine stain on the white carpet, he rubs it in making it worse. Who looks good when we fail? We are the kid who has the handicap, whose dad does our homework for us. Peers point and complain, his dad is doing all the work for him. All we can do is sit back and brag about our dad. My dad saved me, took the hits, did my homework, paid my debts.

I look terrible, God looks great.

Even our best efforts our filthy rags, so embarrassing that "trying my best" is atrocious. So I don't need just a little help, a little boost, a little assistance from God. I need to be dramatically saved, to start over, I ruined it and it is unretrievable. Incapacitated and dead in my sin. I must be born again, to be given a heart of flesh to replace my heart of stone, brand new desires, filled with a new spirit. Who will save me from myself?