Sober Judgment

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Romans 12:3

I struggle with this verse. Paul makes it sound so easy and appealing. Because it ultimately is. However, culture– even Christian culture– tells you to rewrite Paul’s words like this:

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, gloss over the bad stuff and judge your life with beer goggles, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” Romans 12:3, the way I want it to read.

A fail is funny and losing is winning

Paul’s phrase, sober judgment, is difficult. It involves looking at the hard realities of the goals we have for ourselves and measuring that against the results our life has produced. Sober judgment is deeply honest. A win is a win and a loss is a loss.

Judging yourself with beer goggles is so much easier. It involves laughing everything off and believing the lie that failure is funny and winning is somehow losing. The crowd tells you, “That’s OK, everyone fails” to make you feel better. But before long their empathetic response becomes your justification.

Applying Sober Judgment

Sober judgment involves staring into the mirror at reality. It means is that somewhere in your life you measuring with real math, setting actual goals, and being corrected along the way.

Are you measuring up against your goals? Are you honest with yourself on what needs to change? And are you willing to take corrective action so that you can celebrate real success instead of the success of merely incremental failure?