Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord;

On this Good Friday, 

reflecting and recovering from a long week of missions with some great students
a great day of good fellowship

with the rain pouring down outside

I feel the pull to write.

Last post I wrote I appropriately used the reference of "what's under your bed" and today listening to a song my Lady Antebellum (because yes, there is a time and place for some country music) a picture was another "bed" analogy that developed in my mind. In the song "Your Side of the Bed," the song shares the story of a couple who have grown apart. In the beginning of the song you can almost see the picture of the woman lying there, with a hurting broken heart, peering over to see husband with his back turned to her. Shut off and disconnected. She wants to know why and how. When did it happen, and why does he not reach out, and why are they so far away while they are so close. 

Just as clear as I saw that picture, I felt my soul whisper "don't you get it. That is a perfect picture of how your relationship with Me can become disconnected and distant. That is me with the hurting broken heart, peering over to see you turning your back to me." 

Being a woman who has walked through rejection, hurt, and having a back turned on me, that is a broken feeling I can so easily relate to. When I thought it, it felt so real. I felt that heavy, burdened, broken heart. I knew that hurt, and I know I am not alone.

Often we hear what sin can do to our relationship with God, but at times it can still be so hard to fathom. But to connect it in such a way that relates to a feeling that is familiar, makes it all the more real. 

Let me paint this picture for you. Let me give you a good representation of sin does in our lives and to our relationship with Our Heavenly Father.

That broken woman with a heart for a man that has turned his back on her. Or the girl that has a heart for a guy that has chosen another woman over her. The man whose wife has walked out on him because the grass seems to be greener on the other side of the fence. 

I say I'm not alone in knowing that feeling because I know I'm not. I know in some form many of you have been in that same position. 

Think about that feeling. 

How awful it is to have something chosen over you. For somebody to say you aren't good enough for me anymore, this was good for a while but you just aren't doing it for me anymore. 

Now try to imagine that feeling multiplied immensely. How crushing.

That, my friend, is how the Father feels when you make decisions to choose things over Him. 

that drink.

that party.

that guy.

that girl.

that compromise you promised yourself you would never make again.

that temptation you can't resist.

that website with those pictures.

When you chose that over God, you turn your back on Him. You tell Him that He isn't enough. You are telling Him that familiar phrase you wish you had never heard "I just don't want to do this anymore, you don't make me happy anymore." 

Sometimes we can't quite grasp the picture of how bad our choices and how bad our sin truly hurts our Heavenly Father, but I know for me that picture, that thought, that feeling, makes it a little more clear. 

What have you chosen over The Father? 
What might be causing Him to be thinking and asking you, how did you get so far from Me? Are you not lonely? Do you not see that I am right here, waiting on you to turn back to me? All you have to do is turn back to me, I am right here waiting. 

Or are you going to continue to lie there, with your back turned, on your side of the bed? 

I pray this reaches you, and it stirs up a time of reflection. I pray you can make some connection with this and it is as eye opening for you as it was me.

17 “And now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 18 But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. 19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.

Acts 3:17-21

-B