Day 27: "Flawless" (Not Beyonce)

Have you ever misheard lyrics? I know I'm not the only one who has because Jimmy Fallon has a whole hashtag about it. There's a song called "T-R-O-U-B-L-E" by Travis Tritt, and when I was little I thought the words were "I spilt tea all over your BLT." Which is, you know,  a legitimate reason to write a song. You gotta tell em their sandwich is soggy. No good.

Anyway...that hasn't happened to me in a long time, but recently I figured out I was singing this song completely wrong (full disclosure: I also thought Building 429's song "I press on" was called "Happy Song" and I was really confused about it.) This song says "The cross has made you flawless." However, I was hearing "The cross has made you promise" which is just bad theology. Jesus didn't make us promise anything to Him. He didn't wait to die until we agreed to do our part. He just did it anyway. Even though He knew we were going to keep messing up over and over again. Just like this song says, it's never too late! As long as you have breath in your lungs, you can have Jesus and His life and His love and His grace and His mercy and His forgiveness and all you have to do is give up trying to do it all yourself! That's it! Just admit to God that you are just messing it all up and you cannot do it anymore. He has to take over. He wants to take over our lives. Not in a creepy possessed kind of way, but in a He knows way better than we ever will kind of way. We just have to stop trying to control it and let Him take it all over. Honestly, even in the times when I am most anxiously trying to control everything, I don't really want to. I am just believing the lies from the devil that are telling me I have to work harder, do more, be more, and I certainly can't give up. But God says "go ahead and give it up. You don't have to work harder or do anything differently. You can come just as you are. I already love you." We don't have to promise God anything in order to get salvation, but we do GET to promise ourselves to God. God never breaks His promises, but He is always willing to forgive and forget when we break ours. And we will. We always do. He stays perfect through our imperfection. He stays faithful through our unfaithfulness. He stays close through our drifting. He just wants you. That's it. You don't have to bring anything, but you will still want to. When you experience God's grace, you will want to promise Him everything and give Him all you have. And all we have is our own life. Thankfully, all we have to give is exactly what He wants.

Don't mishear these lyrics. And be careful with your tea around other peoples' sandwiches.

"Flawless" (MercyMe)

There's got to be more
Than going back and forth
From doing right to doing wrong
‘Cause we were taught that's who we are
Come on get in line right behind me
You along with everybody
Thinking there's worth in what you do

Then like a hero who takes the stage when
We're on the edge of our seats saying it's too late
Well let me introduce you to amazing grace

No matter the bumps
No matter the bruises
No matter the scars
Still the truth is
The cross has made
The cross has made you flawless
No matter the hurt
Or how deep the wound is
No matter the pain
Still the truth is
The cross has made
The cross has made you flawless

Could it possibly be
That we simply can't believe
That this unconditional
Kind of love would be enough
To take a filthy wretch like this
And wrap him up in righteousness
But that's exactly what He did

Take a breath smile and say
Right here right now I'm ok because
The cross was enough

Then like a hero who takes the stage when
We're on the edge of our seats saying it's too late
Well let me introduce you to grace grace
God's grace

No matter what they say
Or what you think you are
The day you called His name
He made you flawless

Day 3: "Forever"

I knew the first time I heard the song "Forever" by Kari Jobe, I knew it was important. The lyrics go through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I've been in church since I was born, and I became a Christian when I was 6 years old. Because I've spent so much time in church and around other Christians, it's not hard to become numb to what God has done for us. I usually see the significance of how He has been faithful to me personally, but I sometimes overlook the things He has done for us all--like sending His Son to Earth to walk among us and then take our punishment and defeat death and Satan once and for all.

When I actually stop and think about the magnitude of what it means that Jesus took my sins upon Himself, it blows my mind. He not only took on my sins, but He took the sins of every single person, alive or dead or not here yet, upon Himself. Jesus is the only human to have ever lived a sinless life--even though He faced temptation just like we do. He was completely perfect and blameless and then He took on our sins. He willingly picked up our shame, our guilt, our brokenness. He absolutely did not have to, but He chose to do it. He submitted Himself to the Will of His Father and TOOK our punishment. A man who did nothing wrong was punished and put to death because of my lies, my pride, my idolatry. Every sin I have ever committed or will ever commit was placed on Him on that day and then He died because of those sins so I wouldn't have to. That blows. my. mind! It's huge! I pray that every person would experience the overwhelming joy and peace that comes from having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that because I'm a Christian I don't have problems and I don't mess up. I do have lots of problems and I mess up all the time. BUT because of Jesus and His love for me, I can trust God to have my good and His glory in mind when things happen in my life. I can look for God in every situation regardless of how good or happy it may seem from the outside. I am not very good at trusting God and I like to try and take things into my own hands too much, but God already knew before I was even conceived that this is what I would struggle with. My daily sins have already been paid for, and I can try to live and love more like Jesus every day of my life. I can try to be obedient to the things God says because of His love and not because I'm just following rules. I can try to tell others about His love and His mercy and His grace through my words and actions each day. I can do all of this while resting in the fact that God and already defeated my real enemy. I may feel like different people are the enemy at times, but the REAL enemy is Satan and he has been defeated! I can rest in that and trust God with the circumstances of my life.

If you've never heard "Forever", I encourage you to listen to it. Learn the words. When you sing them, think about what it really means and the impact Jesus made when He died and rose again. I pray that those of you who don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ would decide to trust Him with your life because His plan and His ways are so much better than anything we can ever come up with on our own. I promise He is worth it.

Day 10: Sometimes I Forget

Sometimes I forget. I forget my goals. I forget how God can redeem anything and turn it into something beautiful. I forget how special and wonderful the people in my life are. I get distracted by the silly, minuscule details and forget the important things. I get caught up in the stuff that doesn't matter and forget what I know is true. I mess up. A lot. Thankfully, Jesus forgives me every time and doesn't dwell on my past mistakes. And thankfully, my people do too. I hope you don't take your people for granted. Relationships are what stay with you. Stuff goes away. You can lose it. But if you value your people, you won't lose them. I want to be known as someone who values people over everything else. My friend, Matt Burchett was over the orientation program at Belmont when I was there. He always said "People over programs." It was how we got through every single orientation session--by focusing on the people and not getting caught up in the program. I want to live my life like that. People over programs. People over material things. People over my doubt and fears. People matter. My people matter. They matter to me. I hope they know it.