I don’t know how many of you have been audited.
Any kind of audit: IRS… financial audit… whatever.
In my career I have gone through over 50 quality audits, and even though they vary depending on the auditor, they also have a lot of similarities:
When the auditors arrive, everybody is smiling. We ask about the trip. We talk about the weather. We offer coffee…
When we officially start the meeting, we talk about something positive, to try to set the tone.
Then the auditors start asking their questions, trying to find something that doesn’t meet the requirements.
The interesting thing is that it doesn’t matter how many things we are doing right, or how many correct answers we present. It only matters what we are doing wrong. When they find a “non-conformance”, they proudly announce it and immediately record in their report.
It is not like the auditor would say: “Well, I found you doing 100 things right, and 50 wrong, so you have passed the audit!”
No, it is more like: “Unfortunately we identified 50 areas that require corrective actions. Let us know when those are complete so we can come back to verify.”
Looks like no matter how much we prepare, the auditor always finds something.
When I was thinking about that, it came to me that God does not tolerate sin. We can’t be in His presence with our sins.
It is not like: “God, I have done more good things than bad things in my life, so I should be accepted by You”
No, it is more like: “Lord, I know I have failed Your expectations. Actually I fail my own expectations many times. I know You are perfect, and my sins are not acceptable. But I also know that You love me and provided a way to cleanse me. I know Jesus Christ died to remove my sins, so I can be acceptable to You. I want to be in Your presence forever.”
Don’t try this approach in an audit, but thankfully, it works in our relationship with God.
It is not what you do. It is what He has done.
