Even on your bad days

By Charles Christian

Best-selling Christian author Max Lucado once asked this question: “What is the holiest part of your day?”

According to Lucado, most people’s answers will be when they are well-groomed and wide awake. Others may say that most of their days contain no “holy moments,” implying that God will just have to wait if there are going to be any special moments worthy of positive reflection.

Lucado’s answer, though, may surprise us. He says that each day, even before we are awake, before our teeth or brushed or we are well-groomed, God in his mercy and love looks at us and proclaims to the angels in heaven, “That is my beloved child.”

This is Lucado’s way of reminding us that God’s love for us is without conditions. God sees someone with gifts, value and potential. The Bible says it this way: “But you, O Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness” (Psalm 86:15).

There are dozens of places in the Old and New Testaments where we are reminded that God sees us as worthy of love and value.

This doesn’t mean we’re perfect. Nor does it mean that everything we say and do is always good. We know that the opposite is true. Yet, in our imperfections and weaknesses, God chooses to love us and to value us. Being reminded of this allows us to invite God into our times of weakness, failure and distress.

We can welcome God’s leadership and guidance because we know those qualities come with no hidden agenda. His mercy comes as a gift, and when we receive that gift and trust it, we experience something holy, true and good, even on our bad days.