Getting Off on the Wrong Two Feet

Two arms, two legs, ten fingers, ten toes.

Perfect!

All is good in the maternity ward.

Or so it seemed…

When will the crying end?

Why do the ‘terrible
twos’ last more than a year?

Why won’t they listen to me?

How did they become
friends with ________?

Teenagers!

Sometimes they grow up,

but too many of them
just get older.

(Sigh)

We’re not really cute,
little bundles of joy underneath those chubby cheeks. That’s what the Apostle
Paul would tell us:

As it is written:

“There is no one righteous,
not even one;
there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.”

“Their throats are open
graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to
shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know.”

“There is no fear of God
before their eyes.”

 Romans
3:10-18

I wish I could say these
verses describe a small percentage of us in this world. I even feel like they
do sometimes. But they include everyone. They include those cute, little ones who
turn us to mush. They include the nurses who help bring those little ones into
the world. They include our friends, our parents, our spouses, and even
ourselves. “There is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12b).

According to the Apostle
Paul, we got off on the wrong two feet. We came into this world several steps
behind. On top of that, we are told that we exist only by chance. We are taught
that we need to fight to survive. We have confused the genders. We are
empowered to walk away from marriages that don’t work for us. We rally against life and well-being. And we are encouraged to raise our voice because it is
just as authoritative as anyone else’s, and even more authoritative than those
who lead our municipalities and nations.

We try to rise above the
ills of life. We’re told that we can be whatever we want to be – that
everything we need is already inside us. They say we just need to focus and
work hard. For many of us, this is not the case. Things don’t always work out.
Life doesn’t always go our way.

Vision, resolve, and
drive are great qualities, but they aren’t really the keys to becoming
somebody. If they were, we’d have a few less tragedies.

I can’t tell you why
some of us do bad things to others. I don’t understand why people walk away
from their families and friendships. I can’t explain why there are bullies and
killings and suicides. I can’t fathom the heart of someone who sells
another person to various kinds of slavery. But I can say it is rooted in our
very nature.

I can also say that God
has the answers to the agony in our hearts (Matthew 5:4). He understands and He cares deeply (1 Peter 5:7).

Did you hear Letitia Wright (from Black Panther) as she accepted the BAFTA EE Rising Star Award last Saturday? She told us
the truth: “God made [us] and [we’re] important… God loves [us],” she
proclaimed as she stood with her award, a graven mask signifying the dramatic
arts in film and television. This year’s BAFTA rising star didn’t wear a mask.
She “let [her] light shine.”

God loves each of us, no
matter how dark our hearts or deep our situations. On this Valentine’s Day, we
can rest in His love and warm embrace. If you yearn for a meaningful
relationship, look to God. If you want a friend you can trust with everything, open
up to God. He’s listening. He’s ready to give you the gift of faith and the joy
of life.

We don’t need to let the
grip of despair or defeat drag us down. When we place our trust in Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, we will be free to live with our heads up and our
strides surefooted. Jesus paid the penalty for our two wrong feet. We just need
to accept His sacrifice to satisfy our debt, and follow Him with a new lease on
life. This is not a prosperity gospel. This is a relationship with God that
truly frees us from our darkness.

As for you, you were dead in
your transgressions and sins,
in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world
and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air,
the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

All of us also lived among
them at one time,
gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.
Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—
it is by grace you have been saved.

And God raised us up with
Christ
and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
in order that in the coming ages
he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,
expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

For it is by grace you have
been saved, through faith—
and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
not by works, so that no one can boast.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians
2:1-10

💗

If you want to know more
about God’s love and how to have a relationship with Him, please email me at
authordlv@att.net. You may also want to read more about God's gift of salvation here.

Read more blog posts here.

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