You are made for more

​One thing I love about music is it often provides beautiful and helpful imagery.

Imagery like a bed of shame.

I am no stranger to shame. In fact, most of my life has been a battle to fight forward in spite of it.

I've not always won that fight. There have been many days and months and probably long years when shame soundly defeated me. Those defeats often looked a lot like me in a bed made in my shame.

I spent some time yesterday washing my sheets and blankets. And you know, there's something lifegiving crawling into a freshly washed bed at night.

It feels more peaceful. Restful.

A lot of times our beds don't feel that way. Especially when we crawl into them with minds racing with stories that don't feel like peace. They feel like guilt or anger or shame.

Wouldn't it be nice if our minds could be washed like our sheets and blankets?

Wouldn't it be nice if we could wash ourselves in a fountain of grace before we crawl into bed?

I'm here to tell you we can.

God's fountain of grace is always raining down on us, reminding us that when we crawl into that bed of shame, telling ourselves horror stories about who we are, he is all knowing that we are so much more than those stories.

God knows we are all going to make choices we are ashamed of. It's become clear to me that God doesn't jump in and stop us dead in our tracks before we make those choices.

I also believe God knows that being ashamed of those choices in the aftermath is what helps us stop ourselves dead in our tracks before making those same choices again.

But where God DOES jump in, where God DOES want to stop us dead in our tracks, is when being ashamed of our choices becomes a forever shame we make our beds in.

God does want to jump in and remind us that making bad choices doesn't make us less than, it simply makes us made for more.

Feeling like we are less than is an easy way to give up on life.

Knowing I am made for more is the best reason to get out of a bed of shame and make that life of more.

I want to encourage us all to stand in the spray of that fountain of grace. Be reminded that we are his. And the most beautiful part of being his is the assurance that we never have to sleep in a bed made in shame.

Bad choices stand in our way of that assurance, but they never destroy the way. If you ever get to believing they have destroyed it, just look ahead. Look ahead and soak in the imagery of the fountain of grace running your way.

Because I assure you it is. It's coming for you every time you look for it. It is always carrying a reminder.

You are made for more.