i make things hard and you're just trying to help
From http://www.redletterchristians.org/god-loves-us-fk-ups/
God sees us, all of us, and sees someone beautiful, someone beloved. Not because love is blind. Not because we hide things well. But because love sees much deeper. That is the truth about who you are. You are loved.
Jesus did not come labeling others as “sinners” and “whores,” he came to write love on our arms.
It’s an amazingly powerful story, and I think every time I have heard it told in church the preacher could not resist stressing that last line “go and leave your life of sin.” As if Jesus wanted to say “Now don’t take this for granted. You need to pull your act together.” These preachers are worried about behavior, but Jesus was worried about her. Yes of course she wants leave that life. Who wants to live in a broken identity when you have just met love? Those words were not an admonition (as if Jesus was having second thoughts about what he had just done). It was an invitation. An invitation to leave her hurtful and broken identity, and to enter into a new one.
That’s what repentance is really about. It isn’t about pretending we don’t have these wounds, and it isn’t even about merely changing outward behavior. On a much deeper level it’s about not letting ourselves be defined by these hurtful identities, and instead living into a new identity where we are loved unconditionally. Being loved like that changes everything. As we begin to see that, we can have the courage to show that same radical grace to those around us too.
And so I say: You are loved. Right now. No matter where you are at. No matter how far away you feel. You are loved. Don’t ever forget that. There is always a second chance.
God sees us, all of us, and sees someone beautiful, someone beloved. Not because love is blind. Not because we hide things well. But because love sees much deeper. That is the truth about who you are. You are loved.
Jesus did not come labeling others as “sinners” and “whores,” he came to write love on our arms.
It’s an amazingly powerful story, and I think every time I have heard it told in church the preacher could not resist stressing that last line “go and leave your life of sin.” As if Jesus wanted to say “Now don’t take this for granted. You need to pull your act together.” These preachers are worried about behavior, but Jesus was worried about her. Yes of course she wants leave that life. Who wants to live in a broken identity when you have just met love? Those words were not an admonition (as if Jesus was having second thoughts about what he had just done). It was an invitation. An invitation to leave her hurtful and broken identity, and to enter into a new one.
That’s what repentance is really about. It isn’t about pretending we don’t have these wounds, and it isn’t even about merely changing outward behavior. On a much deeper level it’s about not letting ourselves be defined by these hurtful identities, and instead living into a new identity where we are loved unconditionally. Being loved like that changes everything. As we begin to see that, we can have the courage to show that same radical grace to those around us too.
And so I say: You are loved. Right now. No matter where you are at. No matter how far away you feel. You are loved. Don’t ever forget that. There is always a second chance.