Adventists have always been world-class overachievers. We don’t just keep the faith — we turn it into a full-time lifestyle plan. We meal prep for heaven, journal our repentance, and overthink our salvation like it’s a group project.
But somewhere along the line, “Be ye therefore perfect” turned into “Be ye therefore exhausted.”
We preach grace, but our cultural operating system still runs on performance. We measure holiness by what we don’t do, what we don’t eat, what we don’t wear — and then quietly compete over who’s surrendering the most. It’s spiritual CrossFit: everyone’s pretending not to care about their score, but we all know who’s winning.
The irony? In trying to perfect our behavior, we often crush the very thing Jesus called us to — love. Love doesn’t obsess over checklists. Love doesn’t police the edges of other people’s sanctification journeys. Love doesn’t live terrified of being “almost saved.”
What if real spiritual growth isn’t about sin management but trust expansion?
What if holiness looks less like constant self-correction and more like resting in the reality that we’re already fully known — and still wanted?
Maybe the most radical act of obedience left for Adventists today… is to finally let grace do what we keep trying to do ourselves.
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