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The Dread Of What Ought To Be

 Most people who are living for money or prestige have found ways to make it sound like that's not what they're doing. We have somehow created a culture that tells us that our value is tied to what we do, or what we are able to do for someone else.

The truth is that my value has been established by something done for me, completely independently of my ability to do anything. Jesus died for you and me when we were His enemies, and even now, it is not an ability inherent to me which allows me to accept the gift that Jesus gives. It is a grace which reaches down to me, to ennoble me beyond what I could ask or imagine. As I think about pushing back the dread with some distraction, or some pleasing error, the evil of which is not always apparent, it is this condescension of God that I am aware of now.

In more ways than one, I am the cripple invited to the King's table, the descendant of the king's friend. I bring him nothing, and he sets before me a feast, in commemoration of a kindness in which I took no part. That is the generosity of God.

I am enough today, because God has said so. He only invites me to rest in His generosity, to find the fullness of my existence in the quiet joy and peace of his table fellowship.

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