I’m sitting in my room listening to “Come as You Are” by Crowder, and my mind is flooding with reminders of the truths and revelations I encountered at WR training camp.
Come as you are. This was the invitation extended to us from day one. Before anyone ever began the conversation of outreach ministry, we spent days learning what it meant to strip away our false-selves and to walk in the light and freedom of who we truly are: made in the image of a perfect, loving God.
We weren’t made for fear. We weren’t made for judgement. And we were not made for shame. However, we so often allow these things to dictate how we see ourselves, which dictates how we see and relate to God as a result. Each day was spent removing a layer of our false-selves, all the while being loved fiercely and graciously by our wonderful leaders, coaches, and mentors.
Lay down your burdens. Lay down your shame. All who are broken, lift up your face. Oh wanderer come home. You’re not too far. Lay down your hurt, lay down your heart. Come as you are.
As the AIM staff created an environment that affirmed us with truth and grace, I slowly began to realize that I, too, had a lot of truth to uncover about who God says I am and what He is calling me into. Over the course of 10 days, I removed my fear of being alone, unlovable, and hopeless, and clothed myself in the truths that I am fully loved, accepted, and that God graciously invites me into his presence every day, simply because He delights in me.
The second verse of Crowder’s song starts out as follows: There’s hope for the hopeless and all those who’ve strayed. Come sit at the table. Come taste the grace. When my dear friend, Paul, died 2 years ago, I listened to this song over and over as a reminder of the freedom and the rest he now has in heaven, face to face with Jesus. Even now, every time I hear that line, I picture Paul approaching a banquet table in heaven to see Jesus, who looks up at him lovingly, opens his arms, and says, “Come sit at the table. Come taste the grace.”
This week I realized that right here, right now, Jesus is already inviting me continually into this grace that deals with my sin and sets me free. As I wake up at a crossroads each morning with the option to either lay it all on the line for the kingdom or go my own way, I want to choose to accept the invitation to sit at the table with Jesus.
Wherever we are, we are being called into the Lord’s presence. I can’t call out someone else’s identity as a beloved child of God if I’m not believing and walking in the fullness of that reality myself. Now, in just 6 short weeks I will set out for India equipped with these truths and surrounded by a community of crazy, wonderful people who already love me so well. Together we walk forward not into an 11-month mission trip, but into life on a mission, starting now and ending never. As beloved children of God, our mission is clear, our guide is reliable, and wherever he may call us, we say yes.
