Tattered Leaves
on a tree that is rooted on the top of the highest mountain.
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One of the things that I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older is that most of the people I know that have ran away from the church did so because at some point someone pointed out their inability to act out a perfectly Christian life. And, I’ve spent a good amount of time this past week really thinking about what it means to lead a Christian life.
First off, I would like to say that my words henceforth aren’t going to be me giving everyone the green light to just act crazy and out of selfishness like it’s The Purge or something like that. Rather, I would like to encourage all of you so that in spite of the bad decisions you’ll probably make today, you’ll rest assured knowing that you are so loved by your God.
Have you ever woke up feeling amazing, inspired, and loving? Most mornings I wake up feeling a little groggy and grumpy, to be honest, but sometimes I wake up feeling energized by God’s love and a deep want to show that love to the world. It is on those providential, love filled days that I often find myself crashing down harder than I’d like to admit.
I want to love people, but man, sometimes it is hard to. Anyone that has ever been around any group of people for any amount of time can probably agree with me. Loving people is hard. Frankly, loving myself is hard sometimes. People let me down. They lie, deceive, cheat, trick, steal, and abuse. Most of the time they aren’t so interested in what everyone else has going on in their lives, they’re worried about what is going on to them—probably because that is what they can actually verify as ‘real’ in their own minds. If you’re not careful, the selfishness of the world will wear you down. The love of God that abides in you will quickly shrivel up like a snail in the desert.
In my daily—sometimes hourly—moments of frustration with the world, I’ve come to realize that it is a lot easier to be loving when I fully acknowledge the truth: I’m no better than any of them, and Christ died for them too.
I don’t know how many people I see in a day that have accepted Jesus as their savior. I’m not taking a poll of everyone I meet. But I’m certain that one day I will meet some of them in heaven—even the worst of the worst. You see, if living a Christian life meant that every bit of your life was slowly perfected and free from sin, what would you need a savior for? The good news of the gospel isn’t that our lives will be free from sadness from the moment of our salvation onward. The good news of the gospel is that we have a God that loves us so much that He became sin itself—the worst of the worst—and bore the weight of the real consequence so that we didn’t have to do it. Thanks to Jesus, we have been given an opportunity to truly live.
You have been chosen for goodness and love. If God didn’t think you were worth it, He wouldn’t have gotten His hands dirty alongside us in our oh so broken and feeble world.
My good news to you today, you sinful Christian, is that in spite of it all, you are forgiven, you are chosen, you are loved. Though you were dead, dry bones before, you have been given a new life in Christ. That life doesn’t promise perfection in this age, but it does have a pretty good retirement policy in the next one to come.
Walk forward in your walk with Christ without fear of stumbling. Even if you do, it is like a tree swaying in the wind. As long as your roots are nourished by Him, the winds of this world can try all they want, but they’ll be quick to find that your source of nourishment is the same thing that holds steadfast even in the eye of the storm.
Jesus loves you no matter what awful decisions you have made, and probably will make in the future. Follow His word and eventually at the end of the road you’ll find that everything will turn out just fine.
“For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Matthew 11:30 NLT
It’s called trust!