Grow Backward with Me

Grace frees me to be the child that I am and to ask my Father for help.

Have you noticed this sentence at the top of my blog? It has been there since the beginning. Every time I change little things about my blog, I consider changing it, and I just can’t do it. It is simply too near to my heart, too important, too close to summing up the essence of what it means to be “weak and loved,” which, in my mind, is the same as what it means to simply be a Christian.

Let me explain, for the newbies, and because I love to tell the story.

A few years ago, my little girl got sick. It was the kind of sickness that permeated our days and even haunted my dreams: the seizing, blue-lipped, shadow-of-death kind of sickness. And, I was not handling it well (severe understatement.)

And then words of God and man came to this girl with her angry fists and weeping eyes and flaccid faith:

“People say, be strong, but I say, be weak, and be loved.”

And as I limped through that year, plagued by weakness on every side and within, I leaned heavy on the most important word in that sentence: LOVED.

Is it true? Does God really love us? This is the most important question, and the answer changes everything.

If there is no God, or if He is aloof, uncaring, or angry, then we cannot rest, we shall never rest. If we are not loved, then it is all on us- everything, from world poverty, to local politics, to fighting in the Middle East, to the wars waged against greed and anger and lust in our own hearts. It is All. On. You.

However, if God so loved the world that he sent His Only Son,

If we are forgiven, redeemed,

Purchased by the blood of Jesus,

If He has provided a place for us,

And we are His Bride;

If He is our Father,

And we are his children,

And we are loved,

LOVED…

Then we are free: free to be children, free to trust His work in us and outside of us, free to move forward even when we do not understand. We are free to be loved, to live loved.

We are free.  Because of Jesus, because of God's grace, we are free. You are free.

So, I'll say it again.  Say it with me, won't you?

Plagued by weakness? Go ahead and hate it.

Hate it, but don’t let it define you, because Jesus has redefined you, even as He refines you.

Don’t waste time fighting it in your own strength, because Jesus will finish the work He started in you. Don’t pretend it’s so serious that you must hide it, because the seriousness of your sickness has been cured on the cross.

Step out into the light, the freedom of God’s grace in Jesus Christ, and live like the child that you are.

Grow backward with me.

This is the first post in this month's series: 

Grow Backward with Me

Will you (re)learn how to be a child with me?
I dare you.

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You may also enjoy my published works:

Weak and Loved (A Mother-Daughter Love Story) 

an inspirational story of God’s grace

 Tend to Me (Devotions for Mothers)

and for Mothers who tend to everyone else— May Jesus Himself Tend to YOU.