Hammer on Anvil '

"If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36).

I am a sinner. I am broken. I have grieved the heart of God far more than I care to admit in my five-plus decades on this planet. At times I feared that my sins were so onerous that I was beyond the reach of redemption.

The Apostle Paul might have wondered the same thing. In 1 Timothy 1:15, he marveled that, "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst." When he experienced the grace of God Cecil B. DeMille style, he realized he was indeed saved, and his zeal to spread the good news to others led him to exclaim, "Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16).

Yet the truth that we are free in Christ is one that many arrive at with much difficulty, if at all. We who have tasted His goodness should be walking advertisements of His joy and peace and freedom. Our light should shine so brightly that others are drawn to it, yet sometimes we forget how far we ourselves have fallen, and communicate judgment rather than love and mercy.

Christians as a whole, for example, come down very hard on women who have experienced abortion. In my years counseling these broken women, I have learned that it is difficult for them to accept God's forgiveness -- but it is even more difficult for them to forgive themselves. Satan has convinced them that what they did is so monstrous that they are beyond God's reach, and unfortunately this lie is perpetuated by church people.

The church I attend is a mosaic of colorful people, tattooed and pierced, addicted and broken. I love it because it reminds me that life is not always tidy, and that my view of what Christianity looks like may not necessarily be the correct one. As Mike Yaconelli says in his book Dangerous Wonder: "Christianity is not about learning to live within the lines; Christianity is about the joy of coloring."

It is my heartfelt and tear-soaked prayer for people to know the truth that will set them free. Not some manmade doctrine or ridiculous legalism, but the real truth -- the one that rises far above all the rest. The one that redeems their lives from the pit, when they never dreamed they had a shot at life.

May we, as Christ followers, be living examples of this truth.