This may show your age, but who remembers 45’s? Those cute, 7” records with one song on each side? Who had a sizable collection of these ‘modern’ recordings? (still has?) If so. You likely remember every Side A, but do you remember any of the songs on Side B? Poor Side B! It rarely contained a hit song. It was like a zero in math – a place holder. Something had to be recorded on the flip side to call the 45 complete. So, Side A gets all the love and, well, Side B gets leftovers.
Let’s say God’s fatherliness to us, the abundant, prodigal forgiveness and generosity of spirit, and Spirit! (the Plan of Salvation), is Side A. Let’s say, then, that Side B, the flip side, is our response to these jaw-dropping, over-the-top, extravagant gifts from Him to us. What does one do with a mountain of presents like that? We receive them, but is it with joy and with gratitude? Do we begin exploring this new world that is suddenly opened up to us, this space free of shame and condemnation, absent all the weight of our sins, our family’s closet full of skeletons, absent, too, the sorrow and regret that attach automatically to every step outside God’s grace? Do we live more and more fully into this abundance of riches?
Or maybe, do we reject His bounding goodness because of our overpowering shame and conviction of unworthiness? Do we give assent to the facts that Scripture unveils to us while shedding none of the weight of Pilgrim’s sack? Does prayer, worship, and celebration get relegated to an obligation once a week, an obligation that gets more burdensome as the years pass? For those who get mired like that in the enemy’s domain, just imagine the Father’s reaction! All that beauty, all that joy, all that mirroring back to Him stuck in a kind of no man’s land. Gifts unused. The abundance left untouched, untasted, unenjoyed.
Here’s the best thing ever (after all the questions in that depressing paragraph)! If the above paragraph describes us, even a little bit, I think God is holding His breath, just waiting for us to wake up and see what we’ve done, the path we’ve taken, so He can try again to convince us that His Salvation is all true, still waiting for us. Waiting, too, to convince us of His never-cooling-off love for us (think: Luke 15)
We’re Pentecosted people! Let’s search in every corner of God’s beautiful new world like inquisitive children. Let’s learn from every lesson the Spirit teaches. Let’s enjoy the ‘milk and honey’ of Kingdom reality. Above all, let’s gossip the Good News everywhere! Let’s put Side A on repeat! It’ll be the sweetest earworm ever! PD
ps Speaking of earworms, here’s a catchy new song (to me) to fill up your day:
Nobody – Casting Crowns
