where waves grow sweet

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39

When I was 14, I showed up to a school dance drunk. Stupid drunk. A guy on the hockey team took advantage of the situation, and I lost my virginity in the backseat of his friend’s car in the school parking lot. On Monday, I had “slut” written across my locker in magic marker, a girl determined to beat me up, and the whole school aware of my indiscretion. Probably not my best week ever.

I wanted to be a worldly person who didn’t care about these trivial matters, so I bucked up and acted that way. But I was destroyed. It all came back to me and my bullheaded rebellion. It was my shame to own, my bed to lie in. I believed with all my heart that I had disqualified myself from a happy life, from good things, from God’s love and acceptance. I lived accordingly for many years, settling for the bottom of the barrel in my view of myself and in my choices.

But God changed all that. He lifted my head and drew my eyes to his where I could see the warmth of his love and forgiveness. What I considered a permanent disfigurement was, through the purity of his vision, just a bruise that he could heal with his gentle touch. He has been so faithful to redeem the experience and all that came out of it; to give me beauty for ashes.

I’m sharing this because I think so many of us have felt disqualified from the abundant life of Christ. Somewhere under the surface, we have felt undeserving and ashamed. We’ve thought our sins are beyond forgiveness, our mistakes too numerous for his patience, our selfishness, greed, anger, or apathy an affront to his kindness. The thing is we’ve all fallen short. There is no way we could ever begin to deserve what he has so freely given. It is why the pure blood of Christ was required – to cover our every impurity. When God looks at us, he sees the righteousness of Jesus instead of the filthy rags we have to offer. This is the ridiculously beautiful message of grace.

Because of this grace, you are qualified for all the riches of heaven. You are not disqualified from any measure of his goodness or from any degree of his acceptance. There is nothing you could ever think or do that could separate you from the greatness of his love. My encouragement to you today is to lay down your filthy rags, receive this unbelievably good news, and rise up to take the place established for you in the kingdom of God.