Did You Get It All Together

We live in a time when it’s important to “get it all together”.  People who are undone sometimes find themselves on the short end of things. 

We have to “get it all together” on projects, on songs, in relationships, in church and in recipes.

I mentioned church in the list above.  Does God look over the railing of heaven and judge us on our “togetherness” factor? 

I don’t think so. 

Time and again we are reminded to come as we are, leave the cares of the world behind and follow; accept the invitation.  I’ve noticed when I read those words that there are no qualifying instructions leading up to the invitation.

We don’t have to do forty laps around the football field.

We don’t have to bow to the east, or west, or in front of a crucifix or say the Lord’s Prayer in Hebrew.  No such commandments exist. 

The invitation is simple – Come.

And God is doing the inviting.

He says:  “Bring me your tired, your weary, your heavy burdens, your worries, your woes.  Bring it all to me.  Don’t worry about tying it up in a neat little bundle; just bring it all to me.”  In other words God is saying, “You don’t have to get it all together before you show up.”

You can’t earn a place at the party.

You can’t smell good enough.

You can’t look regal enough.

You can’t know the right people in power.

You don’t have to be healthy before you show up.

You don’t have to have two years clean time before you show up.

Just come.  Come as you are. 

Maybe Anne Lamont is right – “we do not have to get it together before we show up.  The opposite may be true.  We may not be able to get it together until after we show up in such miserable shape.”

I kind of like that imagery.  That’s my kind of God!

He helps me get it together.

P Michael Biggs

www.up-words.net

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time