“…Like the forgiving father, God waits for us, too, scouring the horizon for the first sight of our return. And when we do return, bedraggled, banged up, and defeated as we may be, God will joyfully embrace us. This is the outrageousness of Jesus’ message – the outlandishness of God’s love – that we are already forgiven…have always been forgiven. For whatever reason, it seems that the leaving and returning are essential for our salvation. For many of us, we must realize we are in need of God’s grace in order to experience its real and active presence in our lives – grace that had been given us all along. We must realize that we are, in fact, already dead in order to live new and resurrected lives. That is why sometimes there can be such painfully beautiful salvation found when we run out of rope and can no longer continue to live as we had. Because, then we can begin to live the lives God has meant for us all along. Then we can enjoy the beauty and freedom found when we live as the imperfect people of joy that we were created to be…”
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