Ironic

Moral behavior that is the result of transformation leads to righteousness.

Moral behavior that is an effort to control or change behavior, leads not to righteousness but to entitlement -- the root of evil.

Ironic isn't it?

Those in Scripture who were transformed, who had a Divine encounter that left them radically altered, didn't try to be righteous, rather righteousness was credited to them because of their faith. They knew they had to trust. Their encounter with God left them with a certainty they could not do it on their own.

When someone says that to overcome an impasse in your spiritual journey, that you just need more discipline -- you know they are at the end of their spiritual rope. The only thing they have is to tell you to try harder.

If trying harder made you righteous, Good Friday could have been accomplished with much less blood.

And even worse, trying harder leads to moralism. And if we have a few successes of will power, we think even better of ourselves. And then it is a small step to think we know how it all works - that we are qualified to tell others how to live -- how to try harder. Next thing you know, we're qualified to judge others. Don't blink -- you just became a Pharisee.

Ironic.