Dropped in the Sea

I recently heard a pastor preach in chapel about love. While I'm not sure about much of what he said, one thing did stick with me. He said that many Christians do not truly believe that God loves them. At which point I said to myself, "Self, isn't that interesting? All this time I thought I was the only one." Apparently I'm not the only one, which could be an alternate title for this blog. And it makes sense that I'm not the only one, being as I'm not some kind of crazy sport of the human race that has never existed before, with all kinds of new thoughts and feelings.

Deep breath.

I don't really believe that God loves me. Or, rather, I know that God loves me, I just don't let myself accept it. I also think it shows that God has unique tastes, because I know that I wouldn't like me if I met me. Somewhere in a parallel universe that sentence made perfect sense.

So God loves me. I know it, and we sing it all the time in chapel and church. Somehow it doesn't really sink in with me most of the time. And when it does, it's usually not strong enough to withstand the next awful thing I do. It can often feel like I'm drowning in my own sin. So here's something good that William Langland wrote:

"But all the wickedness in the world which man may do or think is no more to the mercy of God than a live coal dropped in the sea.”

Which basically means that we are drowning. But it also means that it's good. Think about it! Can you light a fire in the OCEAN? If you can, you should contact that guy who's in charge of the Avengers, because I'm pretty sure that's a super power. God's mercy is an ocean that completely extinguishes the fire of our sin. Why? Because He loves us. It's in the nature of water to put out fire. It's in God's nature to smother our sin with His love. Do we second guess whether the water should be able to put out the fire? It's water. That's what it does. God is God. He loves us in our sin, thereby bringing us out of it. It's what He does. 

Let's believe in water that can put out fire.

Let's believe in God's love.

Cheers,

Kelley