grace, peace, and mercy

Psalm 119:32 (NIV) I run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free.

I have a confession to make; I am a guilt-ridden person. I even feel guilty about feeling guilty. How’s that for dysfunction?

Yesterday, we went to church and throughout the sermon my thoughts wandered, in a good way, of course. I thought about how often I’ve heard the words, grace, peace, and mercy during a church service. It made me wonder, why, after all these years, haven’t I taken those words to heart and believed with my entire being that God is for me.

Makes me think of a person who got to see the Lord in his throne room and immediately knew he was in trouble. The prophet Isaiah had an experience like no other and had every reason to cower before God’s throne;

^{Isaiah 6:1} In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple . . .    ⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

When Isaiah stood before the Lord, he knew it was the end. He was toast. But rather than fry him to a crisp, God addressed Isaiah’s sinful state with mercy.

 

Isaiah 6:⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

That’s all it took for God; Isaiah was forgiven. Immediately, God gives Isaiah a job to do— take a message to God’s people. Having experienced such grace, Isaiah jumps at the chance to do God’s work. 

 ⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” 

Isaiah had let go of the past, his sin was atoned for and he was ready to do God’s bidding. He was ready to move on knowing that God was for him.

The Bible says that God has cast my sin into the sea. He has removed it as far away from me as the east is from the west. God is for me, not against me. So why do I hold on to my guilt and shame when it’s so clear that God has moved on? Having guilt over my sins is a little like carrying a heavy suitcase during a race. All it does is slow me down. What I need to do, is pitch it to the side and run like crazy.

Hebrews 12:¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us . . . 

Guilt is what hinders me from running in the path of God’s commands. It’s not making me a better person, it’s not atoning for my sins. All it’s doing is weighing me down preventing me from running the best race ever. 

I need to remember that; God is for me, not against me. You need to remember that; God is for you, not against you. God is for us. For us! May we all approach the throne of God with joy and confidence. Ready to run like Isaiah and ready to answer his call, “Here am I. Send me!”

a crazy joke

I made a joke the other day that made my husband laugh—a first for me. To mark the occasion I’m going to let you, the reader, in on it. Conveniently enough, my post for today will also focus on the topic of this joke. 

My husband and I went to a Husker football game this past weekend. If you know me, you wouldn’t be surprised to find out that I’m really not that in to football. But I have to admit, despite the chill in the air it was fun to be a part of the mania in the stadium that day. For the most part, I just enjoyed sitting with my main squeeze and taking in all of the sights. 

There were a few things I did not enjoy, the obvious one being that I was too far away from the restroom. But there was another thing that kind of got to me—the cat-calling going on all around us, which of course, is nothing new to anyone who’s ever been to a Husker football game. 

At times the derision was mild mannered, “Man, I can’t believe he dropped that pass.” But sometimes the cat-calling got downright nasty—the cover-your-children’s-ears kind of nasty. For the most part, we were surrounded by the more benign cat-callers.

After awhile, however, I did get a bit frustrated with all of it; even the mild mannered calls were grating on my nerves. That’s when I turned to my husband and joked, “I didn’t know so many of these fans played college football.” At first he gave me a puzzled look. Then catching on to what I was saying he responded, “Yea, I didn’t realize that so many of the players were female.” 

I suppose if I have to explain it, it’s really not that good of a joke. But, indulge me anyway. And if you’re totally lost, wait for my analogy coming up in the next paragraph. The point I was trying to make, of course, is that age-old problem of everyone thinking that they can do the other guy’s job better. On game days it is an ideology that runs rampant across the country. 

And it bugs me to no end that people think like that. It reminds me of a good quote from one of my mom’s  favorite novels, To Kill a Mockingbird. Remember when Atticus Finch told his daughter, Scout, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

Even if you’ve never read the book, I think the meaning is pretty clear here. In a lot of ways it’s a bit like, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” 

The Mockingbird quote has stayed with me all of these years. And, while I haven’t always practiced the principle, it’s one I strive to remember when I’m tempted to judge someone on the sole basis of what my eyes can see.

Take, for example, a situation we’ve all encountered; the token toddler freaking out in the grocery store. When I encounter one of these not-so-pleasant situations, the first thought that I’m tempted with, is ‘What a bad mother, she can’t even control her own child.’

But what do I really know about a situation that only my eyes can see. What if in reality the kid is screaming because Mom said, ‘No,’ to a toy he really wanted, and she knows that giving in will only make the next tantrum worse. I think we’d all agree that the right thing for her to do is stand firm until Junior learns that Mommy’s not backing down.

To the outsider the whole scene is abominable. But could they have seen what transpired moments earlier they’d understand that while it is ugly, it’s a natural part of parenting. Mom is teaching her child; you can’t always get what you want when you want it.

Let’s go back to that football game and the last couple of penalties that gave Illinois an extra touchdown. Yea, it was a coaching mistake. But what if the coaches were simply trying to get as many “new guys” in as they could and in the confusion, bad things happened. Just because bad things happened, did they make the wrong decision? I guess I’ll leave that up to you. 

By the way, if you think you could have done better, be sure and send me a picture of the last college football team you coached. I’d love to see it. I’m sure you were amazing.

cutting off limbs

This past week in church, our vicar preached a sermon on Matthew 18. It included two verses that I hadn’t heard in quite some time;

⁸ If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

I don’t know about you, but there are some verses in the Bible that truly disturb me and this is one of them. In fact, out of every other passage in the Bible, this one just plain confuses me. 

When I think of this verse a certain memory comes to mind; a Little House on the Prairie episode. Little House on the Prairie? Yes, really.

Caroline, Laura’s mom, has a bad cut on her leg that has become infected. In fact, it’s so bad, she becomes delusional. Reading through her Bible she comes across this exact same verse. Taking it literally Caroline is about to cut off her leg when. . . admittedly I don’t remember the ending. But I know for sure that she does not cut off her own leg. Breathe easy folks, Caroline remains unharmed.

It gets me to wondering though, did Jesus really mean for us to cut off parts of our body to save our souls? That just doesn’t make sense. Perhaps this is an occasion when Jesus was speaking figuratively rather than literally. 

Let me give you an example. Several years back I was struggling with a sin that has clung to me for years, being hypercritical. I had struggled with it for years, but admittedly, it was a “hard habit” to break. 

 As God began convicting me of this sin, I became more aware of how hypercritical I could be—judging everyone and everything. Knowing that God wanted me to be free of it as much as I did, I prayed for Him to change me. But this judgmental attitude wasn’t about ready to go without putting up a fight—a big one. There were days when I despaired of ever overcoming this sin. 

The problem was that being judgmental was like second nature, it was a part of me. Almost as if it were another member of my body, albeit an unseen one. As God dealt with this issue, it sometimes felt like my very soul was being ripped apart. I struggled with guilt and shame, failure and fear. It all cut me to the core. 

Here’s the great part though, God changed me; He changed my heart. I knew that judging others was wrong, but only the Holy Spirit was going to transform me. 

Though it was through His power and Spirit that I learned to put this sin behind me, the process was anything but pleasant. At times, it was downright painful, as if I was being cut to the very core of my being—almost like it might have felt to gouge my eye out or cut my hand off. Though it didn’t happen literally, it might as well have for all the pain I went through as God refined me.

 If there’s a sin that you long to be free of, hear the good news. Although it will hurt at times, it won’t  involve any self-maiming. Yes, it will be painful. But you won’t be going it alone. The Spirit, God’s Holy Spirit, is with you. I’m pretty sure He’ll get you to where you want to be, as well as where He wants you to be. Though it will be painful at times, take heart, it’s worth a short term sting to deal with a life-long sin.