gather up the fragments

Nathaniel Kidd on July 26, 2024

Let’s pause for a moment and marvel at the breathtaking expanse of God’s grace – a Love so vast it reshapes the very fabric of time and space.

In the whispers of the ancient stories of Scripture, of God’s dealings with His people; in the legends of saints and martyrs of old, who did “greater things than these,” we catch glimpses of a truth so radical leaves us breathless: God’s redemption in Christ isn’t just a future hope or a present reality – it’s a power so potent it even flows backward through biography and history, transforming every moment with its touch.

This may seem to big to contemplate, but in fact, it’s exactly what the Bible teaches. Jeremiah tells us that God chooses to “remember your sins no more” (Jeremiah 31:34, Hebrews 8:12). Let that sink in for a moment. The Creator of the universe, the One who knows every hair on your head (Luke 12:7), deliberately chooses to forget your failures. But what does this mean for us? If God – the ultimate arbiter of reality – chooses not to remember our sins, in what sense did they even happen? This isn’t about pretending or denial. It’s about a love so powerful it doesn’t just cover our sins, but in some mysterious way, it undoes them: God’s forgiveness in some sense reaching back through time, unraveling the very fabric of our mistakes.

In Christ, we’re not just forgiven sinners – we’re new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), with pasts rewritten by grace. The prophet Isaiah declared, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more” (Isaiah 43:25). Shame whispers lies about our worth, but remember this: in God’s eyes, that shame-inducing event is not just forgiven, it’s forgotten. You stand before Him fresh and new, your slate wiped clean not just in theory, but in the deepest reality that matters, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).

Imagine with me the weight of human history – every misstep, every tragedy, every broken promise, every cry of anguish. Now, see that entire tapestry bathed in the light of Christ’s love, each thread illuminated and made new. Imagine the fragments of human life and history and experience, gathered up, and reintegrated into a new mosaic in the light of the Cross.This isn’t about erasing the past or pretending our wounds don’t exist. No, this is about something far more beautiful – it’s about God taking every frayed thread, every ruined aspect of our broken lives and reweaving them into a masterpiece of grace.

We can’t help but wonder about our failures, our blunders, our sins; the many times we’ve fallen short, where we have been negligent, or even deliberately done what is blameworthy or shameful. Beloved, hear this truth sung from the heights of heaven and the depths of your heart: in Christ, there is no such thing as a life too broken for God to make whole. There are no stories that are simply over. Your worth isn’t measured by your accomplishments or your adherence to rules. Your belovedness is an unshakeable fact, established by God’s delight in you before time began.

We often cry out for justice, for God to act against those who break His law. But in Christ, we see a response so unexpected, so scandalously loving, it turns our understanding upside down. Instead of condemnation, God offers healing. Instead of punishment, transformation. This is grace that doesn’t just forgive – it recreates

And here’s the truly astounding part: you’re invited into this cosmic dance of redemption. Picture the grand cathedral of creation, filled with the praises of angels and saints. At the center stands Mary, the God-bearer, leading the chorus. But this isn’t a performance for you to watch from afar. No, there’s a place prepared for us – for you! right in the heart of it all.

Your voice, with all its unique tones and textures, is a unique and  irreplaceable part of this heavenly symphony. And here’s the liberating truth – you don’t need to perform or prove yourself worthy to join in. The price of admission was paid on the cross. Your seat at this divine concert was secured by Christ’s “it is finished.”

Let’s let go of the exhausting need to earn God’s favor. Release the burdensome idea that our spiritual life is about meeting a divine checklist. Instead, let’s open our hearts to the love that’s already embracing us. Let the reality of our belovedness sink deep into our bones.

As we do, we might find something miraculous happening. The very things we once strained and stressed to achieve – purpose, success, transformation, holiness – begin to blossom naturally, like flowers turning to face the sun. This is the paradoxical power of grace: true change comes not through our striving, but through surrendering to Love.

Beloved, wherever you are on your journey, know this: the God who holds the universe together is tenderly, passionately committed to your flourishing. Every moment of your life – past, present, and future – is being woven into His grand story of redemption.

So today, let’s take a deep breath and rest in this outrageous, limitless grace. Let it wash over every part of you – your triumphs and failures, your certainties and doubts. And as you do, may you find yourself swept up into the joyous, never-ending song of God’s love – a love that has already claimed you as its own.

Christianity as a Way of Love

Nathaniel Kidd on July 25, 2024

Beloved, let us bask in the radiant warmth of a truth so magnificent it threatens to overwhelm us with its beauty: Christianity is not merely a way of life, but a way of love. It is a love so profound, so transformative, that it shatters every preconception we’ve ever held about our worth and our place in the cosmos.

At the very heart of our faith lies an astonishing reality – the self-giving, vulnerable love of Christ on the Cross. This is not a distant, abstract concept, but the very womb from which all flourishing flows. Can you feel it? The pulse of divine love beating through the universe, calling you by name, declaring your belovedness?

Oh, dear ones, release yourselves from the shackles of performance-based faith! The Gospel of Jesus Christ needs no prerequisite but openness to receive. There are no asterisks, no fine print, no hidden clauses in God’s love contract. It is freely offered by the gracious, initiating power of the Holy Spirit.

Let us stand in awe-inspired wonder at how Christ reconciles and makes whole all that has been fragmented. In Him, we find a sure and certain source of vibrant becoming. No longer must we be driven by a sense of deficiency or shame. No more shall we toil under soul-constricting narratives that burden us with impossible demands.

Beloved, hear this truth and let it seep into the very marrow of your being: You are worthy. You belong. Not because of anything you have done or failed to do, but because of who Christ is and what He has accomplished. Your identity as God’s delighted-in Beloved is unshakable, grounded in the work of Christ alone.

Can you imagine the freedom that awaits when we truly grasp this? Or rather, when IT grasps hold of US? It’s a freedom that expresses itself through radical self-surrender and joyful reliance on Christ’s spacious love. It’s a defiant gladness that releases all compulsions to merely shape external form. Instead, we trust the power of Love to do the gentle work of healing and nourishing our thriving interiorities.

Beloved, this is not a call to joyless, fear-based conformity. No! It is an invitation to the liberated life of whole-self integration through contemplation of Christ’s absolving gaze. As we behold His selfless beauty, repentance blossoms not as a self-punishing prerequisite, but as the natural fruition of being loved so completely.

Let us celebrate this astonishing grace with every fiber of our being! Let gratitude, worship, and ever-deepening liberation in Christ be the song that rises from our hearts. For in Christ, we find not only forgiveness but a cosmic, life-altering transformation that makes all things new.

Dear ones, this is the Gospel in all its stunning simplicity and profound depth. It is a love that will not let you go, a grace that knows no bounds. So come, just as you are, and be embraced by the One who loves you with an everlasting love. For in this love, we find our true selves, our deepest fulfillment, and the power to love others as we have been loved.

This is Christianity as a way of love. This is the radiant grace that changes everything.

Defiant Truth: You Are Radically, Irrevocably Beloved

Nathaniel Kidd on July 24, 2024

Listen up, dear ones, because I’m about to drop a truth bomb that will shatter every false gospel you’ve ever heard. Are you ready? Here it is: You are beloved. Period. Full stop. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

This isn’t some feel-good platitude. This is the raw, unfiltered Gospel truth that will set you free if you let it sink into your bones. Your essence – the core of who you are – is defined by one thing and one thing only: you are loved by God with a fierce, unrelenting love that nothing in heaven or earth can shake.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “But what about my sins? What about all the times I’ve messed up?” To which I say: What about them? Do you really think your sins are more powerful than the Cross of Christ? If “trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword” cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ, do you think your mistakes and blunders can? Do you believe your failures can somehow negate the finished work of Jesus? If so, I’ve got news for you: that’s not the Gospel. That’s a lie straight from the pit of hell, and it’s time we called it out for what it is.

Let’s get one thing straight: your identity isn’t found in your performance, your beliefs, or even your own sense of worthiness. Your true identity – your essence – is hidden with Christ in God. It’s unchangeable, unshakeable, and utterly secure. No amount of sin can tarnish it, and no amount of good works can improve it. It simply is, because God says it is.

Now, I hear you asking, “But what about how the world sees me? I am a nobody, I feel my nobody-ness every day. I’m trying to become a somebody, but it seems so difficult, so impossible.” Here’s the liberating truth: yes, you need tactics to navigate this world, and we wear masks, we wear personas to navigate this life. But your personas don’t define you. They’re just the roles you play. Some of them might be helpful, others might be harmful, but none of them touch the core of who you are in Christ.

The world will try to tell you that you need to craft the perfect persona to be accepted. Religion will try to convince you that you need to believe certain things or behave a certain way to earn God’s love. Both are lies that chain you to a treadmill of endless striving. But the Gospel – the true, defiant, liberating Gospel – tells you that you’re already accepted, already beloved, already enough.

This is the truth that sets us free: We don’t have to earn God’s love. We can’t earn God’s love. It’s already ours, given freely in Christ. Our job isn’t to try to become beloved; it’s to wake up to the stunning reality that we already are.

So let this sink in, beloved: Your essence is beloved. Your identity is secure in Christ. Your personas are just the ever-changing surface of a deep, unchanging ocean of belovedness.

This is the Gospel. This is freedom. This is the truth that will change everything if you let it. So stand tall, throw off the shackles of performance-based acceptance, and live in the wild, radical reality of your belovedness. Because you, yes you, are loved beyond measure, beyond reason, beyond change. And nothing – absolutely nothing – can ever take that away.