I didn't even have to try...
Cross Purposes # 70
13 December 2006
I didn’t even have to try…
A bright young man of 13 years, with whom I am acquainted, attended a wedding recently at which he was totally surrounded by a host of his older cousins. Many of them he had not seen for ages.
What astounded him was their acceptance of him inside all their conversations, their willingness to listen to what he had to say, their freedom to encourage him. He felt ‘at home’. He felt as though he belonged. He made a comment to his mother afterwards that tugged at my heartstrings “… and I didn’t even have to try”.
Don’t you love that? I didn’t even have to try! How many times in my life have I been wondering, “Do I even belong here?”. How often, over many years, in so many places and ways have I agonised over whether ‘they’ will like me, accept me, reject me or hate me? It creates in me (in us?) a conviction that I have got to perform because I can’t live without acceptance. ‘I’ is ‘we’, and ‘me’ is us. We long to be ‘at home’, sense we are not, and live with uncertainty and insecurity because we’re not sure we’re adequate, not sure we’re up to what is expected.
I didn’t even have to try. You know when I said that myself? When, after years of trying to impress and improve, years of trying to establish credit points, (which always evaporated because of bad behaviour on the other side of the ledger), it finally got through my entrenched ideas that God loved me absolutely not because of me but because Jesus Christ fixed it for me. At 3.00pm on Good Friday God changed the rules. “It’s not about behaviour any more – it’s about how you receive my Son! He is my expression of love for you. You don’t have to do anything to qualify!” As Paul wrote: “By grace you have been saved… and this is not your own doing… it isn’t something you have to earn… so there is nothing for you to brag about”.
I didn’t even have to try. God found me and had it all fixed before I even know about it. That’s Christmas love. I / we belong. We are accepted… we have been saved. You don’t need to impress me, says God. I have called you by name. You are mine. In fact, I’ve engraved you on my hands!
The way the cousins of my 13 year old friend treated him was a beaut example of the gospel. You’ve got that family name? – “you belong!”
May you all know you’ve got that family name! Name? Davidson!
Have a merry Christmas.
Fred
13 December 2006
I didn’t even have to try…
A bright young man of 13 years, with whom I am acquainted, attended a wedding recently at which he was totally surrounded by a host of his older cousins. Many of them he had not seen for ages.
What astounded him was their acceptance of him inside all their conversations, their willingness to listen to what he had to say, their freedom to encourage him. He felt ‘at home’. He felt as though he belonged. He made a comment to his mother afterwards that tugged at my heartstrings “… and I didn’t even have to try”.
Don’t you love that? I didn’t even have to try! How many times in my life have I been wondering, “Do I even belong here?”. How often, over many years, in so many places and ways have I agonised over whether ‘they’ will like me, accept me, reject me or hate me? It creates in me (in us?) a conviction that I have got to perform because I can’t live without acceptance. ‘I’ is ‘we’, and ‘me’ is us. We long to be ‘at home’, sense we are not, and live with uncertainty and insecurity because we’re not sure we’re adequate, not sure we’re up to what is expected.
I didn’t even have to try. You know when I said that myself? When, after years of trying to impress and improve, years of trying to establish credit points, (which always evaporated because of bad behaviour on the other side of the ledger), it finally got through my entrenched ideas that God loved me absolutely not because of me but because Jesus Christ fixed it for me. At 3.00pm on Good Friday God changed the rules. “It’s not about behaviour any more – it’s about how you receive my Son! He is my expression of love for you. You don’t have to do anything to qualify!” As Paul wrote: “By grace you have been saved… and this is not your own doing… it isn’t something you have to earn… so there is nothing for you to brag about”.
I didn’t even have to try. God found me and had it all fixed before I even know about it. That’s Christmas love. I / we belong. We are accepted… we have been saved. You don’t need to impress me, says God. I have called you by name. You are mine. In fact, I’ve engraved you on my hands!
The way the cousins of my 13 year old friend treated him was a beaut example of the gospel. You’ve got that family name? – “you belong!”
May you all know you’ve got that family name! Name? Davidson!
Have a merry Christmas.
Fred
posted by PastorFredVeerhuis at 9:25 AM
1 Comments:
I'd just like to tell you that I've recently stumbled across your blog, and I'm finding your thoughts extremely intelligent as well as helpful.
I'm waiting for some more now.
god bless
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