Love like you've been forgiven.

* ok, so i feel like i need to preface this post by saying im not trying to make a habit out of super spiritual (whatever that even means) blogging. if you're wondering where sassy, opinionated lee has gone.. she's still here. next tiem i'll try to blog about somethign more entertaining like my celebrity crush or my favorite new recipe or the elections (probably not the last one). but for now..


you know when you tell someone "i'll call you later" or "i'll email you!" or "i promise, I WILL text you that info as soon as..."

well.. im super good at those phrases. I use them ALL THE TIME. however, im super BAD at fulfilling them. They are so easy to just throw out there with no meaning or truth to them at all.

I've been promising by the moon and stars that I'd contact this friend of mine, and I could never seem to follow through on my word. We needed to discuss some things of pretty grand significance, yet I could never just commit myself to sitting down and putting my fingers on the keys (i mean, i didn't even have to really 'talk' to him.. all I had to do was take the easy road of communication and type him this stuff..) . I'd send little texts to him like "im sorry, i promise im going to write you as soon as I get home today" or "are you even still my friend? i know i told you 86 times i'd write you and I haven't.. but i PROMISE I'm not going to bed tonight until its done". I actually took time out of my day to apologize for not doing it, instead of using that time to write the freakin' email.

I'm LAME.

So after yet another apology message, I get this reply from him..

"dear friend, quit apologizing. quit thinking that i'm mad at you, and quit asking me if we're still friends.

it's your pride thinking for you if you think our friendship or my love for you are based on what you DO.

and PLEASE don't get caught in the cycle of thinking that you're somehow less worthy of being friends with someone because you haven't been acting like their friend. the less worthy you think you are, the less likely you are to act like a friend, and the cycle goes deeper and deeper.

so REST your heart. calm your anxieties, and remember that your debts have already been paid. you are forgiven and, more than that, you are counted as PERFECT because of Christ in you.



Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
and it bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning.

(Lamentations 3:19-23a)"

DANG. I just got knocked right on my butt.

He told me, huh? Talk about sticking it straight...



I'm so thankful for friends that love me despite my failures and shortcomings and lack of repsonsibility to do as I say. I count myself blessed knowing that they see me through a cross that wipes all of my messes clean. I'm so grateful that they are slow to judge me but are quick to show me grace.. And you know what I've come to realize? You know the ONLY reason they even have the slightest interest in being friends with a sometimes-crappy friend like me? Because they are all to familiar with messing up and falling full of blame at the feet of a forgiving God. They have been forgiven, freeing them to forgive. My friend and I's story is the practical application of Luke 7:47. She that "had been forgiven of much, loved much... but those who have not been forgiven, love little". My friends were able to love me, because they have felt and experienced the love of a Father, who found them, and undeservingly made beauty out of all their crap.

Luke 6:37. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

I want to forgive like I've been forgiven. I want that love that comes only through being set free from guilt.


To have people in your life who just get truth is an unbelievable, humbling, thing and it is unreal to me that the Lord sees me worthy to call these people my friends.

Your mercies are new every morning. Praise You for that, sweet Lord.