Some Mornings: On Issues And Recognition

Some days I wake up and don't recognize my reflection in the bathroom mirror. It usually lasts only a second or two as I stare quizzically at the face before I snap out of my half-tired reverie and realize with a start 'oh! that's me!' Life is like this sometimes. Sometimes we don't recognize where we are at for a little while, but suddenly it all comes clear.

A few months ago, I had a dream. I did something wrong, and I can't remember what. But that doesn't matter. Jon Foreman from Switchfoot was chasing me, and I ran into a hut. I shut the door, but he came right on up and knocked on it. I opened the door, and looked at him. He lectured me about what I'd done wrong. I replied with "I know, I'm a Christian, but it's hard to be good all the time!" And then he went on for a little more, but one line that stood out was 'you can sing the dark song, or you can sing the light song.' I woke up from that dream, and I felt like crying. So I did. Just like that. All in a split second I woke up, felt I needed to cry and did so. So I woke up crying.

Sometimes we don't recognize where we are at. Sometimes we won't see that we may not be 'singing the light song' on a certain issue. Often that's our own desire to keep singing the dark one. The dark song sounds so good. That's the point. Most of the time we realize we're singing the dark song, but we tell ourselves that it doesn't really matter all that much. We tell ourselves lies and let ourselves believe them. Because the dark song sounds so much better than the light one.

And then we get woken up with a start. Suddenly it all comes clear, and we wake up, realize we're so painfully wrong, feel like crying, and then cry. Straight away. In a split second. We literally wake up from life crying. Crying out to be healed.

God doesn't want you to feel broken. Brokenness is part of confession and forgiveness, but it's not the whole point. The moment you confess and ask for forgiveness, there's a God that's ready to take that sin away and burn it. Burn it like so many sheets of note paper with so many sins scrawled each. And we get to watch it burn its way into heaven for God to deal with.

Here's the kicker: He already dealt with it when he sent Jesus to die for you.