The Design

 I believe that there is a God who is good and He created us with purpose. He loved us so much that He was compelled by love to create children in His image who are good, filled with love and compassion. We were created for love and to go beyond our SELF. I am convinced of this, though I fail daily. When I was younger, someone very dear to me failed in a relationship and my little heart was broken. When I saw the person suffer the consequence I believed that they deserved it. As a kid I was unaware of my self righteousness.

Time flew and when I grew up, I failed in a relationship. I was torn with condemnation, guilt, shame and judgement. This time I failed. I just couldn't take the weight of it and made a confession to a friend. I was so disappointed that I didn't see hope. My friend graciously explained that God is merciful. When you truly repent He forgives. 

I have always believed in God. As a child I wrote letters to Him mainly out of frustration about my situation. But what I didn't know was that God is merciful. He is slow to anger and abounding in compassion. Because I failed, I was expecting a punishment. When I heard about the forgiveness of Christ and experienced His love for me in my weaknesses and failure, it's then my eyes were truly opened. I have been guilty of being judgemental and who am I to judge? My life is so brief on earth. It's when I failed,  I understood someone else's suffering.

That's when I realised I am created to love and not judge. My point of reference in my life is Christ. He is my Leader. Why? Because His response to crucifixion was forgiveness. Now that's love which is not self centred but is fixed on loving even an enemy. He shows how to live according to the purpose of God which is to love and that's the only hope and solution for all problems. When I evaluate my life I can very honestly say I fail to display this Christ kind of love. I am far from it. Like I said before, I fall and fail everyday. But I still experience God's grace and mercy and yes even in my weakness. He doesn't give up on me though I do. The evidence is that His breath and His Spirit is in me. I am alive with a living hope in me. This hope is guiding me and gently knocking on the door of my heart to give up judgement, resentment, bitterness and fear. His love compels me to be free and to love. Coming back to the story of my relative- encountering God's mercy in my failure helped me connect with my relative and now we are friends. The point being none of our failures are beyond God's redemptive purpose in Christ of restoring us to His original design of love.