Forgiven

“The past can be like sidewalk chalk if you will dance and pray for rain.” Caedmon’s Call

                What will make you happy?  What will give you joy?  Freedom?  Popularity?  Wealth?  David says forgiveness is the key ingredient in the recipe for happiness.  (See Psalm 32:1-2)

                Forgiveness is described as “removing a burden.”  If forgiveness removes the burden sin and guilt create the burden.  I remember as a child feeling the guilt of doing something wrong.  It was a heavy burden.  Trying to sleep at night was nearly impossible.  I would toss and turn and eventually I would emerge from my bedroom into the living room and ask my mom if I could talk to her.  I could no longer keep silent.  I had to “come clean.”

                Often my confession was about getting in trouble with a teacher at school or losing my temper with a friend.  What I did not know at ten that I now know is when I felt the burden of sin and guilt the Lord’s “hand was heavy upon me.”  He was proving His love for me.  As Spurgeon said, “God does not permit His children to sin successfully.”

                What made me wait so long before confessing my sin?  Fear.  Fear that I would be rejected, abandoned, shamed.  But the more I tried to lift that “heavy burden” the more I realized it was too heavy.  I needed someone else to lift it off my back.  When I was ten that was my mom.  She listened to my confessions and she hugged me.  The hug became a “hiding place.”  It was a “covering.”  The hug was a tangible reality of forgiveness.  I remember the trips back to my bedroom.  I was “lighter.”  I was “walking on air.”  Experiential forgiveness brought genuine happiness.

               I am not ten anymore, but the heavy burden of sin still weighs me down.  It is still too heavy for me to lift alone.  Thankfully, I still toss and turn and eventually “come clean.”  I say along with David, “I will confess my transgression to the LORD” and as I do I feel the hug…the covering.  The only One strong enough to lift my heavy burden comes to my rescue.  “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

                What about you?  Are you carrying a heavy burden?  Pay attention to your “tossing and turning.”  Emerge from your hiding and run to the God who will hide you in the covering of Christ.

Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart! (Psalm 32:11)

Forgiven,

Steven