A Grander Promise

A few weeks ago, I spent the day at a mansion on the bay. Yes, it was very swanky. The way that I am wired, I am prone to pensiveness. In that setting, I couldn’t help but get lost in my thoughts. 

As my colleagues and I gathered for prayer, one of them prayed that we would see that what God has for us is bigger than what the world can provide. That is a compelling ask considering the setting. Think about it. What if you grew up poor, remembering the little brown food stamps, the struggles your parents went through, the massive student loan debt, the constant feeling of being behind, and now you’re in a mansion? There was an endless number of bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen to die for, and the most beautiful views one could ask for. In the midst of that, asking that God would help us see that what he has is BIGGER than this, hits the soul. 

But I think that prayer is about so much more than just stuff. Stuff is easy. I have so many trinkets, toys, and sneakers that I figured out a long time ago, that they don’t do anything for you. I was having this discussion with my students in class recently. One guy’s chief aim in life is to be rich and my immediate response was that money won’t fill the hole in his heart. I know it because I’ve lived it.

This prayer that what God has for us is bigger than what the world can provide is more about identity than anything else. In a world where we are tempted to chase the status, the title, and the label; Where we are compelled to demand respect because of our credentials, maybe God has something more planned for how we identify. 

Belief

Sitting in bible study a few weeks ago, a dear friend posed a question to the group: what’s the hardest thing to believe about God? 

As everyone in the room shared, some people needed time to think. I didn’t. It’s the same answer it’s always been. The shadows that have been there my entire life: my sins are forgiven, I am loved, I am worthy. 

The world offers me those things but never as good or in the same way as God. The great lie of the enemy is that I can find those things out there. Somewhere. Anywhere. I spent a decade believing the lie. Chasing it. Hoping to find the answers out there. 

Instead what I found was an empty void. I wish I could say that I stopped chasing those things the day I became a Christian but we all know life is not that simple. The older I get, the better I understand the grander promise of God. 

In Galatians 2:20, Paul says: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 

In 1 John 3:1, John says,  See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The identity of the Christian is that we are redeemed, we are chosen, we are loved, we are forgiven, and we are made worthy. 

Broken Pieces

In the song, Mosaic, by Beautiful Eulogy the first verse closes with these lines: I was called to give my life instead of keep it/Gotta leave behind my sin if I wanna follow Jesus/In our weakness is where the Gospel meets us/The beauty of redemption revealed in our broken pieces.

We are all broken in some way, that’s the nature of the fall. How that brokenness manifests itself will be unique to each of us but we are all constantly being offered a remedy for those broken pieces. 

In Isaiah 61:3, God paints a beautiful vision for his people:

 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—

to bestow on them a crown of beauty

    instead of ashes,

the oil of joy

    instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise

    instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

    a planting of the Lord

    for the display of his splendor.

I love the King James rendering, beauty for ashes. This is the great exchange. When Jesus said that he wanted to give us, our burdens for his. Every frustration and pain for his peace and security. 

This Isaiah passage is the very same one Jesus read in Luke 4. This is how he chose to inaugurate his public ministry. 

What if the grander promise of the Gospel is true? What if God really does look at you, and me, and simply says: LOVED. 

How does that change the way we move and breathe and just exist? 

I was asked a disorienting question this week, one that confronted the lies I have believed my entire life. One simple question: what if you are good enough?

I am. Not because of me but because of the one who gave it all. The one who takes the broken pieces and makes them new.