you are right

You are right.

I am.

I am everything your stares tell me I am. I am deserving of the sting of your silence and I accept the fate of your whispers. You have tarred and feathered me with your dirty looks. I have no need to wear a large “A” on my chest, for you know who I am. I am the witch. And you are my jurors.

You are right. I am not the man I claim to be. I claim to be a follower and lover of Christ. I claim to a person devoted to pleasing God and helping others in their search to find Him. But I am not the man I claim to be. I am a sinner and not worthy to be called God’s beloved. I do what I do not want to do. I choose to sin daily. Hell, sin is a part of my lifestyle. I do not live up to the love I have received from the God whose name I claim. I fall short…and I am worthy only of death.

You are right. How dare I even attempt to fit my feet inside of the shoes Christ has given me to fill? These are beautiful shoes meant for beautiful feet. These shoes are sacred and holy, and they are dangerous, even deadly, when worn by the wrong man. How dare I defile them? These shoes are meant for the godly, not for the sinful.

You are right. You are right about everything you despise in me. I am the sinner you have pegged me to be.

You are right.

But if you don’t mind, please don’t light the fire under me. Please, I plead with you. If you would, untie my hands and take me off of this stake, because I would like to keep trying.

You are right, but don’t forget…I am still loved.

We are equally in need of the same grace and equally undeserving. We are equally to blame for the death of our Lord. You must remember that. We are both guilty, and both forgiven. We, both, have only one hope and it certainly is not our moral uprightness. We, both, have only one hope.

We are brothers, you and I. So…if you would allow me to, I would like to keep trying to do the best I can, knowing all I can really do is to cling to the grace that is freely given.

So please take me down off this stake and let me go.

And you are welcome to come along too if you’d like...and we could go about this journey together.