Stop waiting until you have it all together. Come now and we can have it all…together.
We all love to be invited. There is something about receiving that invitation that speaks to our desire to be wanted. While I love getting dressed up for weddings and other events my favorite invitations are those that come with no requirements. They don’t say ‘You’re Invited as long as you look just right’ or ‘You’re Invited as long as you have it all together.’ Instead they just say, ‘You’re Invited.’ This is the invitation, to come just as you are, to come now. Yet, somehow we find reasons that we aren’t good enough to come. What I’m starting to love about life is that so much of it is not black and white. Things are not always all good or all bad but there is some of both. There is hope in the midst of despair, there is joy in the midst of pain and there is brokenness in the midst of wholeness. Often we think it’s one or the other and that one disqualifies us from the other. Instead, we are broken and wounded and yet still loved and still invited. So come now, brokenness aside and join together with those who are broken too.
“I shall make mention of the lovingkindness of the Lord, the praises of the Lord, According to all that the Lord has granted us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has granted them according to His Compassion And according to the abundance of His lovingkindness.”
Isaiah 63:7 NASB
This message comes in the midst of a book about the coming destruction. I love that in the midst of such bad news from the prophet comes such words of hope. It seems like it would be all one or all the other but that is not how God works. While He is a God that brings discipline He also is a God that loves so deeply. His compassion for you is so great and His lovingkindness is abundant. There is no end to it. So even in the midst of the coming pain there remains His great goodness. Our brains don’t always know what to do with that truth. Yet, still it remains true. He is a God very familiar with brokenness and not having it all together. That’s not a good reason to miss out on His compassion. So come now. Come now to His compassion though you find yourself wounded, frightened, angry lonely. You’re still invited. Nothing disqualifies you. He loves you right in the midst of it. So come now!
Don’t miss this from Brennan Manning, “…He loves you as you are, not as you should be, cause you’re never gonna be as you should be…”
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