That Nasty Question

One of the most humbling places to be in, is wondering what good you could possibly be to anybody—even God. There are any number of roads that lead there, some we have little or nothing to do with, others that we had a lot or everything to do with, and lots of ways both plain and hidden in between.

It is one thing to say, “Yeah, I’m a sinner” or “Yeah, I’m broken.” It is another to come face to face with the daunting reality of those facts. When you do depression starts to set in telling you that life stinks and that is never going to change. Then anxiety, depression’s constant companion starts filling your mind with worry about what is yet to come. These then produce fear and we start to think that failure is all we can ever expect or hope for. Depending on the road that brought us to this place, guilt chimes in, and we start to get weighted down by our mistakes, sins, and failures. All these together culminate in shame, telling us not only is the world broken, not only are we broken, but we are worthless, hopeless, beyond repair. And so we come to face this awful question, “What good am I to anybody—even to God?”

God’s answer to that is “More than you know.” Need proof of that? That is what Christmas is all about.

On that first Christmas night a baby boy was born into this crazy, messed up, broken world. He wasn’t asked for. He wasn’t looked for. In fact the only people who did look for him had to be told by God when and where to look or no one would have shown up at all!

God the Father loves His broken, messed up, scared, and nasty people (that would be you and me) so much that He was willing to join the creation He created, to be born as one of us so that He could show how no power in heaven on earth or under the earth is able to undue His love, joy, and delight in us.

Grace does not stop there either. It is the divine aloe that soothes away anxiety. It cures depression with delight. It transforms guilt to glory and shame to shalom. It fills the fearful with a fierce love and joy. Grace is the great reverser. It makes the broken a blessing. It makes the unlovable lovely. The astounding fact is that our past and present brokenness and mess are the things through which God loves to work most!

Don’t get me wrong. I think we will always know we are broken. I still see my scars. I still recoil at my sin. I still know full well that I am broken. But God loves me and you anyway. It is not because of us. It is because of Jesus. It is “one-way love.” And therefore I cannot do anything to change it, increase it (it is already maxed), decrease it, or lose it. After all, life’s great lesson is that I am not enough. And the second is like it, Jesus is enough; and in Him you will always have enough.