Thank you, Rene 💜

I wrestle every day with truth, love, and understanding God’s word clearly. I pray fervently for His direction and the guidance of His spirit. It is so very hard to not allow the voices of the church stand in for the voice of the Holy Spirit. I wish it was easy, I wish things were black and white like we were taught, but at the end of the day we all need Jesus because we ALL fall short of God’s perfect holiness. Who am I to decide which sins are permissible to allow fellowship and which should cause us to be excluded? Unrepentant sin, some say is where we need to draw the line. Well how about this one? I have been overweight for the last 30 years of my life. It could be gluttony, it could be laziness, it could be lack of love for the person God created me to be – all consistent sins – yet NO ONE ever suggested I did not belong in the community of faith or suggest that I wasn’t fit for service. I could go on about examples of things we choose to ignore while we focus on this one thing.

I say all this not to make it about me, but to say that you are seen and heard.

We, the church, need to pay attention. We need examine our own hearts deeply. We need to look at Jesus example. Jesus didn’t tell Zacchaeus to fix his life and then he was coming over – he came and met him just as he was! Any changes that Zacchaeus made came because of his encounter with Jesus. Scripture never even tells us what Jesus said to him. Only that he saw him and spent time with him and change resulted. We should learn from this. If our role was to do something other than do life with a person why would scripture not give us a playbook of our master’s actions in this instance or any of the others where Jesus encountered “sinners”?

Sorry, now I’m ranting. Not my intent.

Thank you for your courage to speak. Thank you for your staunch love for your daughter and for Jesus. You are my hero!

Hugs and love,
Rene