Success and failure

My third son Trevor is coming to visit today, and staying for a week. It is weird to think he is on his own and doing well. There was a season where he needed a dad, but he is at the stage now where he is pretty self sufficient. He is the neatest kid. I wish I could take credit for who he has become, but is is all God's doing, probably in spite of me.

I know that last statement is treading into self deprecation. If Trevor were bumbling through life, in and out of jail, I would struggle with feeling totally responsible. It would be hard to not see his failure as my failure. But when he is successful, it is even harder to see his success as my success.

When God looks at us, do you suppose He ever feels like He messed up somewhere? I doubt it. The good He created us to be gets compromised by our stupid choices, but it doesn't affect His stance toward us. Our failure or success isn't about Him, it is about us. It is easy to see our sinning as 'about us', but when I imagine our successes being about us, I find I quickly want to assign the good to Him. But it doesn't make sense. Either He is responsible for both or He is responsible for neither.

So that means the good in us happens when we agree with Him and live like He wants us to, but it is to our credit. We reap the consequences of our choices, whether they get us good stuff or bad stuff.

I'm sure I must be really ticking some folks off who are doctrinal whiz kids. Just trying to make sense of it all is giving me a headache.