I am a sinner. It's not a question; it's not an idea; it's a fact. I am a sinner. I'm a sinner and I don't deserve Jesus dying on the cross for me. I don't deserve the Lord of all creation choosing me and pulling me out of this wretched darkness. I look at myself and realize that I am not a "good" person. By wordly standards, I may appear to be. I've been to Tijuana, Mexico, spent the summer of my sophomore year living with a missionary family (shout out to the amazing Ward family) in a small town only a couple of hours from La Paz, Mexico, traveled to Haiti to spend a couple of weeks in the mountains to help the people there, worked as a VBS and middle school leader; I don't drink or do drugs; so does that really make me a good person?
Some of you may be nodding your heads yes, but I am swiftly shaking my head no. No, I'm not actually a good person. R.C. Sproul said: "Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once and He volunteered." The only "good" person to ever walk the face of the earth died 2000 years ago on a cross for people who did not deserve it. I am not a good person...I am a sinner. But. But I was chosen.
One day, the Lord sent His only son to Mother Earth, and so it was that true and perfect love was born in a stable, in the form of a sweet, precious baby that was destined to die for you and I - the picture of unworthiness. And so I was chosen. You were chosen.
And suddenly, an epic pursuit began.
No longer are we alone, being pursued by nothing but people, who come and go as they please and stop pursuing after they get tired or bored or settled. So He chases desperately after us, until we finally turn around and allow Him to slam into us so hard that His love echoes throughout our every cell and we can't help but be enraptured by it. Every bad thing, every debt, every mistake, every terrible late night decision, every rude word, every feeling of self-loathing, every moment of weakness, is wiped away by God's letter of love: "I have sent my one and only Son to die for you; to take away your sins. I have sent my one and only Son to die so that we could have no barriers between us. I have sent my one and only Son because I love you so much that I would give up anything to be with you. I have sent my one and only Son in a relentless pursuit of you."
Psalm 23:6 says: "Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever."
God loves you. God found you. God pursued you. And God will never stop pursuing you. How's that for true love?
