Today’s been a “reheat your coffee nine times” experience, and staring at this mug all day has brought me to this thought (as Jesus often does):
You are not that thing you did.
You are not that decision you made.
You are not the mess you created.
An uncomfortable truth:
You will most likely endure the human earthly consequences for the thing you did… the decision you chose… the mess you made.
Because that is how the world works.
HOWEVER.
God works differently.
Here’s some more truth:
You are a miraculous creation.
You are equipped for your calling.
You are LOVED.
We blow it over and over again, but God is spending the entirety of our lives (and the eternal entirety of His existence) tenderly drawing us back to himself. And we’ll be refined and closer to his own nature because of how we grew through that thing we did… that decision we chose… that mess we made.
Shame says we’re ruined. (And shame will relentlessly whisper that message into our ears until we believe it.)
But GRACE? Grace says we’re never out of chances to get it right.
Reheat your coffee, tell shame to shut up, and get to work. You’re still here, which means God’s not finished with you yet.
HP, J