Come as you are

My brother was in town last week and asked to borrow our car. I told him he was welcome to it if he was willing to drop a vehicle off for Liz at work. He drove to the hospital and made the change. The only hitch was Liz didn't know he was coming.

She called to tell me she had given the keys to Tony, but would have liked to have known he was coming so she could have cleaned the car first. I assured her, "it was just Tony" and he's alright with seeing who we really are.

Liz's desire to tidy-up had pure intentions, of course, however, it also revealed one of our largest insecurities we have as human beings. We want to clean ourselves up before we present who we are to the world. Often times this is good. I like that people address basic hygienic needs before they leave their home. I'm not really interested in your bad breath, but I am genuinely interested in who you really are.

When it becomes most important, though, is when we try to clean up before we go to God. As if we're loaning someone our car, we take time to clean up our act before taking the steps to walk through the church doors. Or we adamantly try to stop doing this or that before we pick up the Bible or engage in a conversation with God. I often hear people describe that they need to adjust their lifestyle before they enter into a relationship with God. We're scared to come as we are. We want to present our best side because we know God deserves it, but it just prolongs getting to actually meet him because we actually can't clean ourselves up. To those if-then people: the IF never happens and the THEN never comes.

"But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" - Romans 5:8.

Read the verse again. Jesus knows where you are and what you're about, and he still chose to love you...while you were a sinner. Never did He say you need to clean up your act first. He's passionately pursuing you in your mess of a life, just as you are today, not what you want to become tomorrow. While we were yet sinners...

I find great comfort in knowing that Jesus loves me just the way I am. And I'm encouraged to know that he loves me too much to let me stay that way. He doesn't ask us to change on the outside before we go to him. He wants us to come as is and allow for Him to change us from the inside. He's available to everyone, no questions asked. You don't have to tidy-up first, take his word for it. He remains faithful (2 Timonty 2:13).



"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved." - Ephesians 2:1-5