Dying for Grace

This is the way God put it:

   "They found grace out in the desert, 

   these people who survived the killing.

Israel, out looking for a place to rest, 

   met God out looking for them!"

God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will. 

   Expect love, love, and more love!

And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again, 

   dear virgin Israel.

You'll resume your singing, 

   grabbing tambourines and joining the dance.

You'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards 

   on the Samaritan hillsides,

And sit back and enjoy the fruit— 

   oh, how you'll enjoy those harvests!

The time's coming when watchmen will call out 

   from the hilltops of Ephraim:

'On your feet! Let's go to Zion, 

   go to meet our God!'" Jeremiah 31:3-4

So this is where surrender gets us.  Just as the bad news was for us, so is the good news.  But you can't get to the good without the bad.  There are no short cuts to lavish love.  There is no grace without death.  

This week I have had to remember that each and every day.  The paradox applies to every choice, every conversation, every relationship.  I want to live, so I must die....