Psalm 15 and John 15
H,
There is, as you have
rightly noted, all this propensity for sin and chaos in the human soul. This is
the same as it has always been. It is no excuse when you have the final cure. There
is no longer the “I cannot do it” argument. The word itself has told you that. It
goes further and says you could actually never do it. You were well deceived when
you thought you could. The falling down was actually a beautiful let down.
 Now that we have all that sorted out, we can move
on to why we are really here. There is something above being wrong that is also
above merely feeling you are right. That old lie that being in the light was
merely avoiding the dark cannot hold water anymore. There is more to do than
merely dodging potholes on the road. We are on the road to something grander
than our dreams.
And isn’t everything we need
just part of the road? Are we not changed from glory to glory by following and not
worrying? We learn the dance by falling down and (add appropriate metaphor). We
are not going to feel light about failing to live up to our faith. Nor should
we because we care. There is, however, a difference between the sorrow that leads
to repentance and the guilt that makes us stop and give up. One is Godly and
the other is not.
Sooner or later, we will get
this idea firmly rooted in our heads:         God
is not going anywhere. We are the ones who can leave. His love is not less than
the love He demands from us to show others. He tells us to forgive till
perfection and He will do the same and more. His forgiveness is transformation
and His love is an abiding sort. It is a scandalous sort of thing and there are
parts of it that will hurt our sensibilities and make us uncomfortable.
So, as we approach this new
dawn in God let us settle in our minds once and for all the unending nature of
His Grace. There is no fragility here. It is a strong response to our battles
with death and decay. It is the freedom to live outside of fear and an
awareness of a throne that can handle our mistakes. He is not unaware of the
sordid details. He just puts them in context. That context is love. Until we
know the height of His forgiveness we cannot experience the depth of His love.
Tomorra.