Skip to main content

Jesus Loves a Hot Mess

I went to Starbucks this morning to have my quiet time. I needed to work on the Christianity Explored assignment for next week's class. As the morning rush began, I headed home. As I was leaving, a woman from our leasing company was looking at herself in the window before coming in. "Rough night?", I asked with a laugh. She blew through a shortened version of her evening and how she wasn't really feeling awake and alive at the moment. Then, she saw the Bible in my hand. 

"You read the Bible?", she asked quizzically. "Like all the time?"

"Yes," I said with a chuckle.

"And here I am saying 'f' every other word and being a total hot mess."

"No worries," I say with a smile, "Jesus loves a hot mess."

It's a story repeated over and over again in the Bible. He loved the unlovable. The sinners. "On hearing this, Jesus said to them, 'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'" (Mark 2:17). We are all sinners, but some were called out, banished, mocked, stoned or killed for their sins. The "law" was used to punish. Jesus came to set us free from ourselves and our sin. All we have to do is choose.

Jesus knows our hearts. He knows us even in the dark and hidden places of our being. He knows because He was there in the beginning: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1, NIV). He knows us and assures us we are valuable to Him: "Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." (Luke 12:7) The sparrows were sold cheaply, but the price paid for us was His life. Now, that is a deep, forever love. The kind available to those growing in the good soil as well as those still living as a hot mess. 


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Struggles

Struggles. We all have them. My (latest) favorite saying is, "We all have our things." And for me, my "thing" is wanting to eat to fill the emptiness inside. And not like carrots and apples and good for you stuff. Oh, No! The really bad for you stuff. I crave sugary treats. I have been doing so well with my eating lately and have been exercising for the last few weeks as well, but last night nearly took me down. I was struggling with wanting to run--not walk--into the kitchen and make myself a bowl of cereal with some Craisins or a fruit smoothie or a PB&J. I prayed instead. Almost to the point of tears, I begged God for this to pass. I ate some carrots. I drank some more water. I contemplated some tea. I got out my swiss ball and did some wall squats as I watched TV. I had already been out for a walk earlier with ML, too, but I felt like I was coming out of my skin. OBSESSING about eating something. It wasn't food that I wanted, though. I wanted to feed t...
6 comments
Read more

Sometimes, Reality is Worse

What if I told you that Joseph/SAM was created to hurt me? Made up to be everything I'd ever want and more? What if I told you everything I believed and knew him to be was an enormous hoax? All because someone wanted to give me what she felt I had given her. All that she felt I had taken from her. I have to admit that while people have hurt me before with their actions and decisions it has been for their own personal and selfish reasons. Usually not with malicious intent.  There has to be a lot of pain and hurt within a person to invest so much into the creation of a fictional character. Someone who would really take the time to know me. Someone who would enlist others to make the ruse real. To call me on the phone, to send me cards from the web, to pick out a card and leave it at a bar where the bartender who gave it to me told me how cute my guy was, to create a Facebook account with pictures and friends, to bring an ex-wife into the mix, pictures from the desert and your trave...
10 comments
Read more

Treat Him to Love

I read this article  posted by a friend. She asked what are the 20 things a woman should do for her man. My responses below were learned the hard way through my own 15 year marriage and the 9 years since I chose to divorce. They are not things I say lightly or for part-time living. They are for every day. Every. Day! Even when your man doesn't deserve it, hasn't earned it, give it to him. That is what unconditional love is. The most quoted verses at weddings is from 1 Corinthians 13. It speaks of God's love for us and is meant to teach us how to love like He does. That's what the marriage relationship is to emulate, God as Groom/Husband and us/the church as his Bride. 1. She speaks of him with deference in front of others including her girlfriends.  2.  She treats him with respect and lifts him up with her words, affirming his character.  3. She knows no one is perfect and gives him grace for those moments when he falls short for we all do.  4. She k...
Post a Comment
Read more