Sunday, May 25th and the Great Exchange...

Ever so often I reflect back on life and how it came to be that God would find it in his heart to invite someone “like me” into his adventure. Those feelings of “worthlessness” are real and they revisit the soul if I let them. In the continuum of God’s holiness/perfection and the reality of my own failures (sin) is a cavernous gap that seems impossible to navigate. So like so many, there I sat with empty feelings of hopelessness only to fill those voids with the pursuit of career and what it brings to the table. Not a bad thing really, but nothing less than a spiritual diversion that buries those original feelings and thoughts.

When money, success and recognition show their face it’s a great feeling, but what remains is an itch that has yet to be scratched. You know that place in the middle of the back that you can’t reach on your own. It never goes away. It was so with me and God. He never went away…

How does He deal with my sin? How does this perfect God handle my imperfect life? Does he simply forgive and forget? If so, why then do I still remember? If not, how do these seemingly polar opposites get reconciled?

Then one day, for reasons I can’t remember, I read the following:


Revelation 5 - The Lamb Opens the Scroll (New Living Translation)

1 Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who was sitting on the throne. There was writing on the inside and the outside of the scroll, and it was sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a strong angel, who shouted with a loud voice: “Who is worthy to break the seals on this scroll and open it?” 3 But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll and read it.
4 Then I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll and read it. 5 But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, “Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.”
6 Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth. 7 He stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne. 8 And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. 9 And they sang a new song with these words:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and break its seals and open it.
For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
10 And you have caused them to become a Kingdom of priests for our God.
And they will reign on the earth.”
11 Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders. 12 And they sang in a mighty chorus:
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered—
to receive power and riches
and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing.”
13 And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang:
“Blessing and honor and glory and power
belong to the one sitting on the throne
and to the Lamb forever and ever.”
14 And the four living beings said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.

John 1:29 (New Living Translation)

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

2 Corinthians 5:21 (New Living Translation)

21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.


Here are a few more questions to ponder:

How do these verses answer the questions posed earlier?
What’s the difference between feeling unworthy and feelings of worthlessness?
How does this affect the healing process?


Personal note:

I’m okay. Because of what Christ did for me I can move on and live for him. My reflections today are ones of gratitude, and those feelings of worthlessness are gone; carried away by the Lamb of God. New chapters are being written and the healing is ongoing. That itch is gone, but the journey continues…

Peace and Hope…