I've gotten bored with the music on my iPod and, therefore, have resorted to listening to the commercials of Spotify (which, granted, isn't that bad). I was in the mood to listen to some Jesus jams and re-stumbled across a song I had heard a few times over Christmas break. It's "Hello, My Name Is" by Matthew West.
Go listen to it right now.
Here, I'll help you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuJWQzjfU3o
You guys, here's the deal. If you have believed and accepted the fact that you are human and screw up, that God sent his perfect son Jesus Christ to take the blame for your screw ups (and raising from the dead in the process), and that you are forgiven, then this is for you. If that does not apply to you, I pray that you investigate the love of Christ and the freedom in his truth.
Matthew West's song has made me want to cry from joy every time I've heard it because the truth is overwhelming.
Romans 8:14-17 calls us adopted by God. He called us out of our sin and death and chains and into his family. He takes our rags of regret and our coat of defeat and strips them away. He says in Revelation that he is making all things new. We were not created to wear clothes that broadcast our failures. He takes everything that is not perfect from us and puts new clothes on our backs.
And, for whatever reason, we beg for the other ones back. Because they're comfortable. Because we can hide our dirty secrets in vague proclamations. We want people to know that we aren't perfect but we refuse to be vulnerable enough to let on what's really wrong with us. Our society is obsessed with wallowing in our sin because it's easy and, even if it hurts, it's a heck of a lot less painful than discovering why we're doing this. That discovery would lead to the truth, and the truth is just too hard to bear.
This is the great lie we have been led to believe. That we are hopelessly alone. That there is no redemption in us, so we wear our mistakes like badges of honor because it's the thing to do, and that the truth will only bog us down. So YOLO, right?
No. Wrong. Stop. Enough.
If we let ourselves be defined by what we have done, what we have been told, and what we think of ourselves because of what we have seen, we are dishonoring the very one who created us. We let our identify get wrapped up in things that are temporary. I've so easily taken on the role of "English major" or "Impact cochair" that I let the fact that I am Linley, a created masterpiece and a daughter of the most high God, slide by the wayside.
Because that's what we are. We aren't claimed by our regret or defeat anymore. And for anyone who tells you that you are defined by your past and what you've done--in your head or outside of it--know that those are lies.
You are not alone.
Nor hopeless. Or unloved. Or any other negative definition.
The Bible is full of definitions of what you ARE if you are in Christ. Claiming his name gives you the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven. But on a less grandeur scale (but possibly more incredible), we are forgiven of what we've done and redeemed as something beautiful.
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that he may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Peter 2:9-10.
(hey Dad...sorry it's been so long since I've posted)
