A Note to Write

I stumbled into the kitchen this morning and a beautiful reality met me. Oh yeah! I had cleaned the kitchen last night! My day is full of possibilities now!

This is my only day off this week.

Hello, laundry.

Ironing is the ONLY chore I will pay cash money for. It's also the chore that has no takers.

Did I mention cash money?

Glenna is earning money for Night of Joy, and even SHE doesn't want to iron.


Yesterday's church worship service was especially sweet because I had missed last week. Pastor Ron spoke on Romans 3:21-24, which he described as the most important paragraph in Christianity, and after the final amen I felt like I had been running a marathon but FINALLY burst through the ribbon at the finish line.

Glorious!

I noticed that Kelly was taking notes as furiously as I was . . . each word was golden. Each phrase was exactly what we needed to hear.

Romans 3:23:

"For all have sinned . . ." past tense.

". . . and fall short. . ." present tense.

" . . . of the glory of God."

YES, I will stumble and fall again and again. I will fall short of being everything I want to be, which is everything HIM. I can't avoid this. I can't really help it. Sin is still present on this earth and I have to struggle with it daily, though some days are far easier than others. This is where I am running the marathon! Striving continually, I become exhausted and long for rest. I am exhausted because I am counting on myself and forgetting the most important thing a Christian could ever know, the very heart of the book of Romans.

Romans 3:24:

"They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus."

Grace

Freely

Poured

Out.

I fail. He declares me not guilty. Not because of anything I have done to put check marks in the "good" column of my life, but only because of His grace.

I can't.

He did.

Grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus alone.

I could never be good enough.

He was more than good enough on my behalf.

I can't explain what that means to me, to know that the marathon I was running has already been run and I've been declared victorious. I am running and running, trying to be exactly what I think I'm supposed to be, and God is telling me, "YOU ARE. Don't you see? I paid for your perfection. You have been made perfect."

Perfect like Him.

This is not how I feel. No, this is NEVER how I feel, but this is what is true. This is how God now sees me because I have trusted that the death of His Son on the cross is enough.

It is enough.

Anything I do from here on until death is not because I have to earn my own righteousness. It's because I'm writing a thank you letter to my Savior.

And my Mom taught me to always remember to write a thank you note.