I know bad things have happened to you. I know you've done bad things. I know as you read this there's a hole in the pit of your stomach weighted by all the times you were wronged and all the wrongs you've done. But I also know this, more than anything else and clearer than anything else, He took care of that over 2,000 years ago. He bore our guilt, our shame, our disgust at the world and at ourselves. He suffered it so that in His name we wouldn't have to. There will always be pain, I'm not stupid to think otherwise. The world is going to hell in a hand basket, and things are getting worse by the day. But we aren't of the world. We aren't partakers in its demise. We aren't branded with the same curses anymore. He gave us forgiveness. He gave us freedom. He gave us the promise of eternity with Him and through the Holy Spirit He gave us His presence right here and right now. So don't fall into that hole in your stomach. Don't believe the lies that your doomed, that you deserve your suffering, because you don't. No matter how bad you've had it or how bad you've been, we are never past redemption. The world will keep going down until He returns (trumpets, big white horse, angels: Revelations) but we aren't meant to follow its lead, but His. You've been set on a different path and by grace you have been given the right to walk it . . .
