As Who I Am

This from Chris Arnade, a self professed skeptic who says, "the people who challenged my atheism most were drug addicts and prostitutes." It's an interesting post. He doesn't tell us precisely where he ends up, but his spiritual convictions are clearly changing (and I always find that fascinating).

I found this particular paragraph profound:

The first addict I met was Takeesha. She was standing near the high wall of the Corpus Christi Monastery. We talked for close to an hour before I took her picture. When we finished, I asked her how she wanted to be described. 

She said without any pause, "As who I am. A prostitute, a mother of six, and a child of God."
 

The gospel of free grace enables us to be honest about who we are.

Think about that for a moment. I think most of us would have a hard time being that candid: Describe me as I really am:

• a prostitute... and a child of God.
• a porn addict... and a child of God.
• an adulterer... and a child of God.
• a cheat, a fake, a fraud... and a child of God.
• oh so centered on myself... and a child of God.

Why is it so hard - to be honest about our flaws, our failings, followed just as unswervingly by, "...and a child of God." Every single one of us has things we don't want people to know about us. Why?

I suspect that most of us, deep down, really don't believe it can be true. We think that if the first thing is true (I am a divorcee, a manipulater, a deceiver, whatever) then I can't possibly be the second: a child of God. We believe this, because deep down all of us think that love is earned, and we all want to be worthy, because we all want to be loved. 

This is why from the outside, real Christianity is often so puzzling - if I'm really a failure in God's eyes [read: sinner!], then how could he possibly love me?

The answer of course, is free grace. God loves me, because he chooses to. Not because I'm NOT a failure, but in spite of it. And that means he can't love me any less, no much how much I fail.

This is why it's called redeeming love: true gospel love that doesn't just meet someone in their plight, and give them a big hug. No, it actually bears the consequences in our stead - I am a sinner, yes, but Christ was so in love with me that he entered my world and died in my place...that I might be a child of God! Whoa.

That kind of love marks us. It moves us. For when we really come to grips with it, how can it not? 

And that kind of love frees us up to be radically honest. Why I fear any critique, when I have already received the greatest critique of all - Christ died for sinners, of whom I am chief! If he saw me as I was, and loved me in spite of it, then how can me being honest about my flaws make him love me any less? It can't!

I have no idea whether the author of this article gets all that or not. But at the very least it seems clear that he's brushed up against good old fashioned Christianity - the kind that enables someone to say, Describe me as I really am: utterly flawed... and yet a beloved child of God! 

And for that, atheism has no answer.