In January of 2013, an interesting story came to light about a young man named Matt who lives in Perth, Australia. After entering a Subway sandwich shop and ordering the footlong sub... he came away sorely disappointed. You see, he returned to his seat and actually measured the bread. The result? It wasn’t even close to the advertised 12 inches that the word “footlong” implies. When challenged in the media, Subway responded that the word “footlong” is a used to describe the sub and not to be used a a measurement of length.
This got me to thinking about a verse that says the same thing about us... Romans 3:23 tells us “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” No matter how good we try to be... no matter how much we do... none of us will ever measure up to perfection. Why? Sin. And it’s because of sin that all of us miss God’s mark from time to time. But take heart. If we accept Christ as Lord and Savior, that sin is forgiven and we are separated from it forever. Let’s live as advertised... not perfect but exonerated. Not flawless but faithful... striving toward our God-potential.
