Ensign: Dear Younger Me
AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 2 September 2016
I've been hearing MercyMe's 2014 song "Dear Younger Me" at work a lot these last few weeks, and it sticks in my head because I've especially wondered -- as I suspect most of us have in quieter moments -- what I would tell a younger me. For just over half my life now (I'll be forty-five in December) I've kept a handwritten journal which some people as a waste of time, but sometimes looking back at what I've done (or more accurately, what I've done that I bothered to record) I'm amazed more by what I did right, or what I did better, than what I'm doing now.
Dear younger me
Where do I start
If I could tell you everything that I have learned so far
Like I said, I TRY to do that. I'm not always victorious. God's Word especially, while throughout Scripture draws from the past, never tries to live in it. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob then and now is the God of David, the God of Martha, the God of Sarah, and the God of Jeffrey now too. I'm using my household members' names there, but feel free to substitute your own. Just as Hebrews 13:6 refers to Jesus Christ His Son as the same yesterday, today, and forever, so God Himself refers to Himself as the LORD, [and] He does not change.
One step ahead
Of all the painful memories still running thru my head
I wonder how much different things would be
Dear younger me, dear younger me
Humanly speaking, when Jesus walked the earth He started as a baby and grew to become an adult He did not always want to go through with God's plan to save the world. Is that such a surprise? When the devil tempted Him (Matthew 4:1-11) after He'd spent forty days fasting and praying in the wilderness, it would be hard to believe -- indeed that's the whole point of a temptation -- that He didn't find something appealing about making stones bread or leaping off the Temple roof and being caught in full view of a crowd or gaining all the kingdoms of the world.
It's JUST a matter of stepping outside the will of God for your life.
Dear younger me
It’s not your fault
You were never meant to carry this beyond the crossAnd I wasn't either.
I mean, yes, when I sin, when I step out of the will of God for my life (even when I think of it, which is harder for me to do the older I get) it's frustrating to dwell on or be reminded of the times that I have. Which could be why I don't read in those written journals I refer to above as often as I used to. Some things I'm really ashamed of, some things I'm really proud of. But all of it's contributed to who I am now, whether you like me or not. It ultimately is not a question of whether others care than I am (of after I die, that I was) here. It's what I do between the two points that counts.
Dear younger me, dear younger me
You are holy
You are righteous
You are one of the redeemed
Set apart a brand new heart
You are free indeed
Amend that; it's what I do and Whose I am that counts.
That is a delicate balance, between being under law AND under grace. But the grace of God, the unmerited favor of God is the only way the law -- which Jesus Himself said He didn't come to destroy but to fulfill -- achieves its fullest expression, not because we're afraid of breaking it but because Jesus has already borne the price of breaking it. The wages of sin is -- I'm thinking in my English teacher mode that should read "are" -- death, but then I plug in "salary" for "wages" and it makes sense. (Besides, I remember Romans 3:23.)
Without death, we cannot have life.
You are one of the redeemed
Set apart a brand new heart
You are free indeed
I'm going to guess younger me might not understand some of what I've said here today. Or maybe he might; I'm re-reading a devotion I wrote nine years ago and find I'm getting lost in points I made in it! But you know, that doesn't bother me like I thought it would. No more than the usual forgetfulness. I just think younger me, and me now, and all of us need to be reminded of that -- that we are redeemed by Jesus' death on the cross and His rising from the dead, we are set apart as children of God, and we are free indeed.
And I am so thankful for that.
David
P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with you, and I hope it is encouraging too! If it's not or you just want me to get lost, please let me know. Thank you!
Thank YOU, Lord, that we can always come to You in prayer and that we can count on You to provide for all of our needs, even when we don't know what they are. And we come to you in prayer for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence and all over the world.
Thank You as well, Lord, for everyone in leadership and service both here and abroad. Thank You also for the opportunities we have and the promise of new life through You by Your Son Our Brother, Jesus Christ.
And I pray that we will all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.
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