We sold our house this week. It was on the market for 5 days when we got our first offer. Admitted-ling it was a horribly stressful week. It almost felt as if the house wasn't ours for that week. We were no longer "living" in it. We were preparing it for someone else. Do you believe God can teach you in even the smallest of things? I do.
As we were hustling and bustling to get the house ready I remember going through and touching up paint mis-haps...cleaning corners that haven't been touched or dusting light fixtures I thought just looked that way. I remember seeing dents in the wall and being able to name where that one came from. I covered them as best I could. There's a stain in the carpet...quick move a piece of furniture over it. Wipe down and make it sparkle...presentable...
Oh! How we do this in life. We sin...we hide. We let the lies of not being good enough push us into a hiding spot so good no one can find us...we "fix" dents and paint mis-haps...places we've screwed up...places we've lived...to be presentable to a world of judgement...maybe even a God we've painted as judgmental.
Hiding is a dangerous, slippery slope in my opinion. Because you get good at it. Maybe it starts from shame...guilt but then you realize you've got the world fooled and you continue to go deeper into your hiding place and it gets darker....because sin...it's dark and there is no end...it keeps going deeper and deeper and darker and darker.
As I walk through the house I realize...I can't fix these dents. I can't fix the broken drywall, the cracked grout or the broken outlet...I can't fix them. I can try and I can put a temporary solution on them but I cannot fix them.
I cannot fix the sin in me. I cannot fix my scars and dents from life. I cannot fix my mistakes or any dishonor I've caused anyone. And every time I try to...I take away from the Cross. I tell God..."your son wasn't good enough for me". Because when we try and fix our sin...we've missed the point of grace. We've missed the point of the Cross and we have let our circumstances rule and make a statement that these circumstances are more important that just resting in Jesus and HIS work on the cross...not ours.
"You don’t have to hide your filth, you don’t have to hide your scars, you don’t have to hide your shame – because He justifies the ungodly.
Grace is a call to come out of hiding, because God, not us, makes us right and changes our heart."
~www.aholyexperience.com~
When we understand the power of the Cross...the grace filled work of Jesus...we no longer have to hide because we are ungodly...we just have to trust. We will always be broken...we will always sin and fail and have dents and patches, scars and bruises...but we are more beautiful because of them...because each time we trust that His mercies are new every morning...we are renewed...forgiven...considered righteous...pure...accepted and loved.
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