I am renting a cottage on the harbor in Charleston SC and this morning I watched as a cargo ship left our port filled with goods and another one came to port ready to be unloaded. As I watched the two ships pass one another, it occurred to me that this is much like our lives.
Our homes sometimes need a good spring or fall cleaning where we get rid of things that have been hanging around a long time and are no longer needed cluttering up our space. Spiritually speaking, we should do more than spring and fall cleaning. We need to do daily cleaning up of our junk– removing things that crowd out our God-space; that threaten to cause us to sink under the load of sin, stress, or emotions that are simply heavy.
The beauty of being a Christian, is that Jesus came to save us from sin; save us from the loaded up cargo in our soul. The cross is the symbol of His death, and the empty tomb offers us the reality of His mission accomplished. We can come to Him when we find ourselves stuck in sin, stuck in places that draw us away from God; stuck because we have filled our hearts with too much junk. Thank God that He sent His sinless son, to carry our burdens and save us from a life filled with emptiness.
So as I gazed at the two boats nearly side by side I saw a picture of how turning to God in repentance unloads our cargo that causes us to stumble. Ship after ship coming to port to be unloaded, only to be loaded back up again. That’s us! We cannot keep a clean account. We cannot keep from sinning or stressing, or judging, or comparing ourselves to others. We keep filling our hearts with things that threaten to destroy our peace.
BUT GOD…
He did it! He gave us a way to unload our junk through the gift of repentance. I think of repentance as the gift that keeps on giving. Daily, sometimes many times a day, I go to the Father and ask him to forgive me for my attitude, or whatever causes me to turn from HIm.
Paul got it. He wrote in the 7th chapter of Romans, that he could not help himself from loading up on things he wished he did not do. But he also reminds us that God sent His only Son to die for our sins and unload our boats. That is the best news every!
So I find this law at work, although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ……..Thanks be to God who rescues me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
