We are all on the wrong side of the equation.

Less than we should be

Distorted by the intensity of our desires,

Unable to handle pleasure,

With a fatal attraction to evil.

The scariest things about being alive on this earth,

Do not emanate from the skies above

Or crevices below,

But from the recesses of human minds.

Injustice, inequality, racism, sexism, classism, greed, deception –

All stem from something broken within us.

What can cure the human heart?

Scathing magazine articles that call out injustice?

Self-medication?

TED Talks? Research?

Scientific discovery has taken us half way across the galaxy

Yet we struggle to overcome our own basest desires.

Mankind has battled and failed to create solutions for the human condition

That are untainted by the very problems we seek to solve.

What can save us now?

There is a Great Equalizer.

With mercies that outnumber our faults and

Love that outruns our fears.

He has crafted a solution so perfect that, in our imperfection, we wrestle our entire lives to comprehend it.

To follow Christ is to believe His intentions are better than our own,

His purposes worth more than our own ambitions,

That in the times when our will crosses His,

We say as He said in that garden,

“Not my will but Yours be done”.

To follow Christ will always be costly

And it will always be worth it. *

You see, Jesus is no one’s native.

Even the Jews of His day were at odds with Him.

He boldly

We are all deeply, deeply flawed.

Every man is skew

Every man needs saving;

He equalizes us all regardless of our religious performance, criminal record or credit score.

He freely gives us all the same grace;

To surrender our own agendas to His will

And accept the Greatest Love we will ever know.

Love so amazing, so divine

Demands my soul,

My life, my all.

⁃ The wondrous cross

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple. 27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ 31 “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

-Luke 14:25-33

*Is God Anti-Gay? Sam Allberry, The Gospel Coalition