Redemption

It was a pretty difficult weekend. To begin, I had two services to speak at. We had a Good Friday service and an Easter Saturday service. In addition, I had to be at work both of those days at 5.30 in the morning. Because of the holiday weekend, we had a lot of special events at work. Then on top of it all, I was really worried about two of my good friends.

But I was talking to another of my friends about the process of redemption. We were talking about how it is hard, and how it hurts sometimes to be going through the process. He recently started dating someone, and we were talking about both of their baggage. In the past, he has really treated women poorly, and one of his deepest longings is to somehow do it right for once.

I think the problem most of us run into with redemption is thinking that it will work out perfectly. We have been fed this idea that fairy tale endings happen sometimes, but really (and this is Don Miller's idea) every story ends with death. We think that somehow at some point, we will get everything fixed and leveled and we will be able to make up for all the crap we have done. But what if we never get it all fixed and leveled, and what if we never get to redeem the idiotic things we have done? What if we just have to accept those things? What if we just have to trust that someone else has already redeemed them for us, and that he alone can get everything fixed and leveled?

The thing is, I really believe that God gives us chances in life to make things up, but many times it is nothing like what we believed or dreamed. Maybe in my life, making things up is helping redeem the sins and faults of my father, loving men that have really screwed up, and helping them to find redemption. What if my weekend was redeemed by refusing to walk away when it was hard? What if my friend's redemption is learning to love because he has hurt and been hurt? What if, in our deepest hurts and weakest moments, God is waiting to redeem in our weakness? What if it is nothing we can do, and everything all at the same time, but maybe in different senses? Or maybe I'm just exhausted and needed to ramble.