I want to jot down some truths about grace here.
I've been re-reading "Velvet Elvis" (for the third time).
And I'm getting a lot out of it.
Perhaps it's because I'm looking for it... and I know that there are profound truths that I need to truly be reminded of - or even exposed to.
I wanted to share a bit of chapter six here.
".. God makes us in His image. We reflect beauty and creativity and wonder of the God who made us. And Jesus calls us to return to our true selves. The pure, whole people God originally intended us to be, before we veered off course.
Somewhere in you is the you whom you were made to be.
We need you to be you.
We don't need a second anyone. We need the first you.
The problem is that the image of God is deeply scarred in each of us, and we lose trust in God's version of our story. It seems too good to be true. And so we go searching for identity. We achieve and we push and we perform and we shop and we work out and we accomplish great things, longing to repair the image. Longing to find an identity that feels right.
Longing to be comfortable in our own skin.
But the thing we are searching for is not somewhere else. It is right here. And we can only find it when we give up the search, when we surrender, when we trust. Trust that God is already putting us back together.
Trust that through dying to the old, the new can give birth.
Trust that Jesus can repair the scarred and broken image.
It is trusting that I am loved. That I always have been. That I always will be. I don't have to do anything. I don't have to prove anything or achieve anything or accomplish one more thing. That exactly as I am, I am totally accepted, forgiven, and there is nothing I could ever do to lose this acceptance.
... We need you to embrace your true identity, who you are in Christ, letting this new awareness transform your life (p. 150, 151). "
Rob Bell then shares about an experience at a restaurant. He was having breakfast with his son and father.. and their meal ended up getting paid for by someone else.
The profound depth to this analogy really hit home with me.
He says that he felt helpless.. and that to insist on paying would be pointless. Accepting that what the waitress said was true meant to either live like it was true or create his own reality in which the bill wasn't paid. The chapter ends with this: To trust that grace pays the bill.
I'm learning to truly walk in the freedom that has already been bought for me through the cross. All victory is mine through Christ. All authority is mine in Christ. I'm learning that it truly is only by grace that I am saved. With all my faults, He loves me still. He is doing a good work in me, if I allow that work to be done.
The things of God are really what matter.
I'm not saying to be out of touch with life here.. "being a Christian is not cutting yourself off from real life; it is entering into it more fully (p. 91)." If I am truly keeping my heart soft to God and truly seeking Him, I will hear His voice. And He is always speaking. Somehow. Through so many things. At so many times.
"Do you really think God's voice is more interesting than the voices that surround you?"
- Rob Bell
