"In you I am well-pleased"

For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:14–15)
           
One of my favorite Christian musicians of all time was Rich Mullins, best known for his songs “Awesome God” and “Step by Step,” who died in a car accident in 1997 at the age of 41. Rich was a fascinating person to listen to – musically gifted but so uncomfortable with the Christian music industry that he left Nashville to live and teach music on a Native American reservation. He famously asked his manager just to send him whatever the average working person earned in a year and to give the rest of the money he made away.
I was listening to an interview with him the other day and was moved by this quote he gave:

“You go to the houses of your friends that have kids, and on their refrigerators they have those really horrible scribblings that their kids do, and they're really proud of them. You look at it and you go, ‘How can you possibly put that up in front of other people?’ Well, you can tell that God has children because I think that a lot of us think that someday we're going to become, you know, the Van Gogh of Christianity, and that we're going to paint something truly, truly beautiful, and God is going to be so impressed that he's going to hold us up and say, ‘Here's an exemplary Christian.’ You know what I think? God just likes people to scribble, however awful it comes out, and then he goes, ‘These are my kids.’”

Amen. The same sentiment is expressed in one of my favorite Christian songs of all time, Dandelions by Five Iron Frenzy, which likens our offerings of love and praise to God to a child proudly giving dandelions to his mother, not aware that they are really weeds. Here are some of the lyrics:
 
She sees love where anyone else would see weeds; all hope is found, here is everything he needs.
 
Fathomless your endless mercy, weight I could not lift. 
Where do I fit in this puzzle, what good are these gifts? 
Not a martyr or a saint, scarcely can I struggle through. 
All that I have ever wanted was to give my best to you.
 
Lord search my heart, create in me something clean; dandelions, you see flowers in these weeds.

Why do the Mullins’ quote and the Five Iron Frenzy lyrics resonate with me so deeply? I think that the longer I have lived, the more I have failed. And the more I have failed, the more meaningful the grace of God has become. In the early days of my faith, I thought I was something pretty special, that God was lucky to have me on His team. I had grand ambitions for my life and ministry. I suppose I thought I was on track to becoming the “Van Gogh of Christianity,” as Mullins put it. But I have failed more often than I have succeeded. I have wasted time and resources, hurt people, and made many self-centered decisions. And yet, I truly believe that God, like the Father in Mullins’ quote, has taken the scribblings of my life and said “this is my son, who I love, in whom I am well pleased.” Not because of how great I am, but because He is a God of extravagant love and never-ending grace towards His children. And not because I deserve it, but because Jesus has taken all the punishment that I deserved and has given me His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).

There is tremendous freedom found in the gospel of grace. Yes, that freedom can be abused if we take the attitude “all is forgiven, so I’ll live however I please.” But if you truly believe the gospel, the good news that Jesus loves you so much that He died in your place, that He has taken away all of your guilt and shame, and that you have been adopted as God’s beloved child, received His Holy Spirit, and given eternal life, then the proper response is to live your life to please and honor Him. And even if our offerings of prayer, worship, and service are more like scribblings than Van Gogh, more like dandelions than roses, believe that your Father receives it with joy and says of you, “this is my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.”