Make the Exchange

I recently saw a Vietnam war movie which stirred some emotions. My two brothers and a cousin went and survived, but not without injury. Friends and acquaintances went and did not return alive. Through a series of events and choices, I ended up not going. The movie stirred up guilt that I had been carrying all these years – “I did not pay the price, and they did.” A vet might say, “Why did I come home and my buddies did not?” If we are not careful, we will live under the “what if’s.” What if I had done this or that had happened, etc.

Life is like a tapestry. From the back side it looks like a bunch of randomly sewn various colored threads. On the front side, there is a picture crafted by the Master Artist who has the infinite ability to take what seems to be completely senseless and make a piece of art of it. He knows the beginning from the end, and things don’t catch him by surprise. The motto of the nation on every coin is “In God We Trust.” Through it all, that is what we must do, even when we don’t feel deserving to trust him. He has it figured out, we don’t. Do we make good decisions and bad decisions? Yes. Do the decisions of others affect our lives? Yes. Do we experience painful loss? Yes. Can we unscramble eggs? No. Can we trust God where we are and he can make an omelet out of the broken eggs and we can live our life in his blessing? Yes. King David was chosen of God to be a warrior for his people. Events happened, good and bad choices were made. There were good consequences and very painful consequences, even losing is son. But through it all, he kept his trust in God; he kept running to God, not from God. He is known as a man after God’s own heart, who would fufill all his will (Acts 13:22). For us to be truly free we must exchange our guilt, and our goodness, for God being bigger than all, and rest in him, and live our life trusting in him. Trying to figure out the back of the tapestry is not the answer. It makes no sense. Turn, See God, who takes life that happens and gives meaning in the midst of it. When we exchange our guilt and our goodness for God, through the cleansing blood and work of Jesus Christ on our behalf, we can truly go free.

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