Grace, revisited.

It's 3:37 am, sleep and I are apparently not in agreement tonight, and I miss you ... so I thought I'd take a few minutes to revisit a very real offering that is freely yours, freely given by a savior that is in pursuit of you.

If you're out there reading this, then you have a past ... and I would dare to say that there are things in that past that you aren't fond of. Guilty. It's a stain you've been carrying with you. Like a smudge that you're purposefully putting on every piece of clothing that you own. Maybe it's inconspicuous, but you wear it nonetheless. You wear it because you feel like, because it's in your past, you have to own the pain and the shame. Maybe you've worn it for so long that you have accepted it's presence, imagining that you'll forever be stained ... scarred ... implicated ... defined by the sheer fact that whatever it is can't be undone.

You wake up everyday and tell yourself, "Just get through. Maybe no one will notice the pain. Maybe the presence of the stain will be less noticeable today. Maybe today wont hurt as bad. Today, I'll try harder to hide my pain."

You live everyday as a battle trying to forget past mistakes. You live everyday trying to heal from a hurt that was dealt you that you didn't deserve. Your heart searches for the reason why. Every ounce of you reaches for this heavy armor that you've accepted as your daily lot and only means of soul protection. You're weary, not only from fighting the memories and the pain, but from carrying it with you in your ruck sack full of your past mistakes.

You're tired. Exhausted from years of constant carry. Like you haven't set up camp for even one night's rest. Your soul aches for rest. Your heart yearns to be held, cared for, kissed, comforted. You just want to be. To be in the presence of some sort of weightlessness. For your soul to have a chance to be suspended in hope, in love, in whatever substance it is that creates a burden-less atmosphere. Just for a moment, you want to be free. Just for a moment, you yearn to feel that child-like innocence that lacks the avoirdupois that you cannot seem to rid yourself of.

GRACE.

It came. It saw. It conquered.

Your burdens have been answered for by Love. Every ounce of this heaviness that is breaking your back daily ... has already been carried for you ... to Calvary.

It's LOVE that came to die. It's Love that answered for every mistake, past regret, every hurt that you made ... years before you ever had a chance to make it.

I'm not arguing for religion. What I want you to understand is this: that when you allow Love to be unshackled in your life ... when you make the conscious decision to NOT keep this Christ guy at bay ... when you devote your heart to allowing Love to be what He came to be ... unequivocally --- your world will change. Break the shackles off your feet, hand Him your ruck sack of past regret, and accept Grace for what it is meant to be.

Weightless. Suspended in hope.  Pendulous in love. Burden-less. Jesus.

He is rest. He is grace. He is hope. He is love. He is strong enough to hold you. It's okay to wave your white flag of surrender. You aren't surrendering yourself to defeat, but surrendering your efforts as a means of allowing the only force in this vast universe that is capable of defeating an enemy that has a mission to destroy.

 He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us, oh,
Oh, how He loves us,
How He loves us all

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us, oh,
Oh, how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh, how He loves us,
Oh, how He loves us,
Oh, how He loves.

And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If his grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don't have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about the way...

He loves us,
Oh, how He loves us,
Oh, how He loves us,
Oh, how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh, how He loves us,
Oh, how He loves us,
Oh, how He loves.

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh, how He loves us...
Oh, how He loves us...
Oh, how He loves us.