I write this blog from a Christian perspective. That is because I am a Christian. The story of how I became a believer is one of desperation. The ultra reader’s digest version is that I sought my value in what others thought of me. I became depressed and full of rage when I wasn’t accepted. Then, I was introduced to Jesus.
The greatest thing about Christ is also one of the most offensive, even in liberal thinking. No one has to change to come to Christ. Christ went to the broken, the hurting, the sinners, the weak, etc. All those adjectives describe who I was and who I am without God.
By no one has to change I do mean no one. No one is excluded from the grace of God by what they have done. I think at the heart of the Good News is that healing and love is offered unconditionally to those who would accept it.
I write mostly about what I believe happens after that acceptance. After we accept to be accepted something amazing happens. Whatever baggage we carry around no longer directs us. The hard thing after the decision is continuing to live accepted.
It is easy to get lost in the world. So many things grasp for our attention. We get distracted. We forget and screw up. The Father weeps as He desires us to come to Him. He weeps as we wander away like the lost son in the parable of the Prodigal.
But He waits. He waits on the front porch, staring longingly in the distance for our return. When we stumble our way back home, He jumps off of the front porch steps when we are still a mile or more out. He runs without abandon to welcome us home with tears.
We are accepted wanderers. We are loved sons and daughters not because of what we have done but what has been done for us. In other words, we are loved because the Father loves us. It is a Truth and, as Brennan Manning would put it, an ultimate reality.
Do you believe that right now you are loved and accepted by God? Do you believe that God’s love remains no matter what?
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