“God loves us as we are, not as we should be, BECAUSE NONE OF US IS AS WE SHOULD BE.”

Brennan Manning

This very simple truth has the power to change everything.

If we let it.

(I invite you to just meditate on it for a day or two.)

But my experience is that often we’d prefer to NOT.

We would LIKE it to be harder:

“There’s NO WAY that God could embrace them; not with what THEY HAVE DONE.”

But a simple reading of the gospels would tell you otherwise.

(Christians still read the gospels, don’t they?)

It’s love and acceptance BEFORE repentance and life change.

It’s “let’s have a meal” before “clean up your act.”

It’s “embrace” before “challenge.”

(NOTE: life change, challenge, and transformation are all still invitations, it’s just that it’s important to keep things in the correct order.)