We always feel that we need to perform. And when the stress overwhelms us, then we want to take a break and want to escape, even if its just for a while. And when we do, we feel guilty for escaping and not being productive (because the basis from the start is because we want to perform, right?) and then we start to feel guilty for feeling guilty, because in perfect love there is no fear, right? If we are serving God then we must have joy, right? If we dont feel joyful and fearful and the problem is not God, so the problem is definitely us, right? So we garner up everything we have inside of us and we force ourselves to move forward, to perform better, to achieve more, to jump higher, to swim faster.

I’ll say it as plainly as I can: this is not the life that God wants us to have.

What I am saying is that the root of all this is condemnation. We don’t need to feel guilty for feeling guilty. Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? That Jesus our Messiah has already performed for us, achieved for us, jumped high enough for us and already gave it all for us. So that we can kick back and relax and dwell in all the sin we want? By all means, no! It is quite the opposite. I love the story that Tim Keller wrote in his book the Prodigal God. It’s a beautiful story about post-war Vietnam. When I first read it, I was blown away and I always read it again to remind me of this Amazing grace that my savior came to give. Read this: 

“[The story is about] Hai, a cyclo driver and Lan, a beautiful prostitute. Both have deep, unfulfilled desires. Hai is in love with Lan, but she is out of his price range. Lan lives in grinding poverty and longs to live in the beautiful world of the elegant hotels where she works, but in which she never spends the night. She hopes that the money she makes by prositution will be her means of escape, but instead the work brutalizes and enslaves her. 

Then Hai enters a cyclo race and wins the top prize, with the money he brings Lan to the hotel. He pays for the night and pays her fee. Then, to everyone’s shock, he tells her he just wants to watch her fall asleep. Instead of using the power of his wealth to have sex with her, he spends it to purchase a place for her for one night in the normal world, to fulfill her desier to belong. Lan finds such grace deeply troubling at first, thinking Hai has done this to control her. When it becomes apparent that he is using his power to serve rather than use her, it begins to transform her, making it impossible to return to a life of prostitution.”

Jesus laid aside the infinities and paid our debts so that we can place our hearts at rest in his Fathers house. When we see the beauty of what he’s done for us it attracts our hearts to him, rather than cause us to go and sin some more. We need to focus less on what we need to do, and more on what has already been done. 

Let me put it this way. Remember what Jesus exclaimed before he breathed his last breath? He cried “It is finished!” (John 19:30) which means that it has already been done. Why are we trying to do something that is already done? It’s equivalent to having a friend paying for our meal but yet we go to the counter and insist on paying the bill. Imagine how confused the restaurant staff would be! How can we ever pay for something that has already been paid for? This is the reason why we feel so tired sometimes. And, if we truly consider the work of Jesus a finished work, it is once and for all. For past sins, present sins and future sins. Therefore no condemnation!

For years, I’ve unknowingly been adding on to the finished work of Christ and I can only remember how tiring that has been. But 2011 brought with it a timeless message that has shaken up my entire life and knowing it, I can never be the same or feel the same again. It is this knowledge that Jesus + Nothing = Everything, and I know that on this rock I will not be shaken. In Him, I have everything. Without Him, I am nothing.

I can never be the same again.