I am not good, and that's not bad!

Well, hello blogging world!!

Sorry for the inconsistent blogging during March. We had company week, media fast week, vomit week, and vacation week during the month of March. Not much time for deep writing and contemplation with all that going on.

Yesterday was Easter, and if you read my flashback post you know why there are no pictures of our family from yesterday. ;)

However, we did have another classic Lucy Littlejohn quote that I could not wait to write about. While, we were all in our cozy bathroom getting ready for church, Lucy was talking to herself in the corner and this is what she was saying, " I am not good, annnnnd that's not bad!" It wasn't til later that I found out that in fact this was not a Lucy original, it is from Wreck-It Ralph.

Nonetheless, it was a spring board for me for my Easter meditations.

I strongly, strongly, strongly, dislike the word good when it is used in the context of behavior. I cringe when I hear people say to my kids, "Oh, you are such a good little girl!" The word good, when referring to behavior, should only be used when praising a dog for accomplishing a trick. Mark and I have this running joke whenever we hear someone use that word, or when someone alludes to performance based ANYTHING; we turn and look at each other, and with our best southern, pastor accent we say, "GOOD! GOOD! GOOD-ER!" We have officially scarred our children. More money to the therapy fund.

I think it doesn't sit well with us  because as we have grown to know ourselves better, each other better, our children better, and lived more life, we realize there is not one ounce of natural goodness any where! AN.Y.WH.ERE! 

That's what makes Easter/Resurrection Sunday/The Third Day, just another Sunday, (whatever you call it) all the more spectacular. We have done nothing as is NO-THING to have mercy poured on us through the cross. There is not a single moment in any of our lives when we,  like a Three Amigo, can shout to Jesus, "look at me, look at me, look at me!"

And the deceitful moment when we want to feel good, good, good-er about our works, Isaiah makes it pretty clear, "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy rag. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away."

And that filthy garment isn't just like a rag you use when changing the oil in the car, this refers to a rag soiled with blood from menstruation. It is unclean by the strictest of Jewish codes.

I am not trying to be a Debbie Downer here, it just struck me so deeply yesterday, that "I am not good, and that's not bad!" Because it was in my darkest, dirtiest moment, Jesus, the Great Redeemer, saw me and came for me. He left glory, became a vulnerable infant, grew up in a broken community full of political nightmares. His feet were covered in the dust of this planet, His heart weighed by the woes of the abandoned and abused, His forehead and back stripped and dripping with blood as He willingly, obediently, humbly, and with JOY endured the cross... Not because there was one ounce of goodness residing in these bones. He chose me for Himself, in all my badness.

That is why I love Easter. I love that we set a specific Sunday aside to reflect on that one moment that changed eternal badness into sweet, sweet, goodness.

Now y'all be good, ya hear?

~Sara