Yesterday I met a pretty marvellous bloke. A real salt of the Earth, hard-grafting man from the East End, now in his late 60's. He came to fix the boiler, but we ended up chatting for quite a while - and he had some stories! Having done some significant time inside in the 60's, he now pursues a life of honesty and hard work, with the mantra that if he just does one good deed or makes one person laugh each day, then he'll die a happy man. He says that losing his freedom for many years has taught him to hold losely onto the things that most get hung up on today - mainly money-security-comfort-happiness based. 

'I'm not religious though!', he assures me. That makes two of us matey. 

Despite his joyfully infectious nature, he humbly (?) told me of a couple of good deeds he'd done this week. 

'If I can't do that, then what can I do with my life!?', he boasts. 

Now, you might subscribe to that philosophy as well, I'm not sure. But I genuinely don't think there is anything we can work on, to make us 'alright in the end'. And unfortunately for this guy, the Bible seems to agree! 

This is one of MANY verses in the Bible that says there is only one way to a fulfilled life. There are no works, not one, that we can achieve to make us right before God at the end of the day. And that includes the works of this charming, zealous and free ex-Con. 

'Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving.' 
- Ephesians 2 v7-10 (Msg)