Come out of hiding, come out of shame, come out of addiction, of fear, come out of the story that has convinced you that this is as alive as you will ever be. Come out.
If everyone always got exactly what they deserved, and the universe finally behaved like we think it should, what would be lost? Well, I think the grace of this moment would be lost. This encounter that a man born blind had with the grace of God in the person of Jesus would be lost. Because the only one in this story to stay open to what’s actually taking place is the one who was willing to set aside everything. Set aside everything he’d been taught about who deserves what and everything he’d ever learned about how his moral universe tracked goodness and distributed pain.
We’re dying of thirst out here, desperate to understand and to be understood. And still we take the easy road of “she’s probably not worth talking to and certainly not worth being seen talking to.”
Friends, please hear the good news of the gospel. God does not require you to be brave in order to be saved, and God will not condemn you, even for being afraid.
Temptation is not about appetite. It is about autonomy. Secure yourself. Define yourself. Prove yourself. And Jesus refuses. “I live by what God speaks.” “I serve God alone.” He does not grab. He entrusts. I am convinced that sin, at its root, is trying to save yourself. And forgiveness is God refusing to abandon you when you cannot.