Sunbath

A few days ago I sat with a dear friend on the corner of 9th and College.  We hadn't planned to meet.  It's summer, and LJ's grinds some good beans.  What other reason do you need?  So with mugs in hand we talked, surfed, and read to each other.  She and I have been good friends for a few years, so it didn't take very long before we opened our bags of dirt, both spoken and written.  Included was a journal of sorts she's been writing over the summer.  It was crass and it was awkward, but it was real.  Dirt is dirty after all.  She admitted that she was an idiot, that she mistreated her parents, that she had been stupid.  She had hurt people and it hurt her.  She hasn't told the whole truth.  She's afraid of life after Hope community.  She's afraid of what happens when people are people with people.  She's afraid of losing a friend.  The summer's been good and bad to her, just as she's been good and bad to those around her.  I laughed as I read.  I laughed because her dirt is my dirt.

Every once in a while I see a glimpse of how similar we all are.  My friend and I are different, just as everyone is different from everyone else, yet we are both human.  We share the same woes, the same fears, the same joys, the same hopes.  I don't deserve my family.  I disappoint my professors.  I am satisfied with mediocrity.  I keep terrible secrets.  I break the laws of my country and I grieve the Holy Spirit.  With my deeds I spit in the face of my God.  I am a crooked soul.

Yet, there is Grace.

And Mercy.

The mold that would bind us to wickedness was broken by an utterly selfless expression of these two things. Chipped and cracked as we are, Grace and Mercy are making us whole again.  We constantly fall short, but Grace and Mercy span the distance.  The dirt caked on our hands and on our feet and over our eyes threatens to soil everything we touch, yet Grace and Mercy wash us clean, and we can work to mend the brokenness around us.  This is the power of the Gospel.  Take heart, my friend.  Don't let the dirt mar the sight of the good that is being done in and through you.  Remember what we know to be true and make that knowledge your foundation, your bastion of strength.  Take in the beauty of these days with open eyes and open lungs, letting the sun bathe your skin, and let joy rule over your heart.