Imagine.
Imagine living with the certainty that you are fully and completely loved.
Imagine living without any doubt about your worthiness.
Imagine living know you are not only acceptable and accepted but cherished.
Imagine living with the certainty that when hard times come, and they will, that you will be consoled, supported and healed.
Imagine knowing that all of this is true, not because you did anything in particular to earn it but is true simply because you are.
Just because you are.
That’s the message I’m hearing this Easter.
I’ve thought about this a lot lately and concluded that the message is just that simple:
We are valued.
We are worthy.
We are going to be comforted.
We will heal.
We are capable.
We are loved.
And not a single one of those things is true because we had to earn it. We aren’t going to do something incorrectly and lose any of this.
How?
Because we are also forgiven. Even before we do whatever it is that we think will separate us.
But why? How could it be so simple?
As I think about my faith it comes to this: God never asks me to wear anything in particular. I can go to church in jeans or a suit and it doesn’t really matter to Him. He doesn’t really care if I sing along with a pipe organ or an electric guitar. I don’t have to use flowery King James language to speak with Him – I can just talk, using my words, my voice and my heart. I can go to church on Friday or Saturday or Sunday, in the morning, afternoon or evening. I don’t have to “do” something exactly right.
He’s not a Rubik’s cube for me to solve – all of these promises don’t happen because I finally got everything lined up correctly.
All He really asks of me is to know that all of those things above are true:
I’m loved.
I’m valuable and valued.
I’m worthy.
I’m capable.
I’m able to heal.
I’m forgiven.
I’m loved.
Why?
Because when I accept that, when I truly and deeply accept that and believe it to be true, I end up treating every other person in the world the same way. When we live in a place of love we love one another. When we are loved, we are loving.
I am all of those.
So are you.
It’s that simple.