Don't Wait Until You're Better

Yesterday we sang in church a hymn I was not familiar with (Come Ye Sinners).  It had a line in it that caught my attention.  I'm including the context:

Come ye weary, heavy laden, bruised and mangled by the fall;
If you tarry till you're better, you will never come at all.
Not the righteous, not the righteous, sinners Jesus came to call.

How often is that our thinking?  I can't go to Jesus right now.  I'm a mess.  I'm going to wait until I can present myself better.   And yet the truth is very clear in this hym.  If you wait until you're better, you'll never come.  He came to call us.... sinners.

This is a really awesome contemporary version of the song that I just found....




It reminded me of a story I heard a long time ago.  Our Dean of Students when I was a freshman stood to speak in chapel.  He said, "This is a chapel service you will never forget as long as you live, because it will be the shortest chapel you will ever attend."

And then he read this.

There is a story in the Talmud about a king who had a son who went astray. The son was told, 'Return to your father.' The son replied that he could not. The king then sent a messenger to the son with the message... 'Come back to me as far as you can, and I will meet you the rest of the way. 

and then he said "You are dismissed."  And he was right.  I never forgot it.  Bart hasn't either.

I have also never forgotten the message of that day:  That God is a loving Father who tells us -- come as far as you can, and I will meet you the rest of the way.

If you have not heard this song, take time right now.  It always brings me to tears.