Why Am I A Rescuer?
In my 33 years of life, I have learned much. I have been introduced to grief. The pervasive kind that touches every nook and cranny of ones’ life. I have walked through the dark nights of the soul and experienced the sunshine radiant joy that comes in the morning. I’ve experienced friendship that has shaped the person I have become. I’ve held the hand of those journeying to the other side and the hand of a mother bringing new life into the world. I’ve felt the pang of heartbreak and experienced the complete joy of holding my newborn babies. I’ve been betrayed and I’ve been loved more deeply than I ever knew possible. I’ve worshipped on every glorious mountaintop and in every shadowy valley. I know the cyclical pattern of seasons, spring, and summer, sure. But also seasons of sowing, reaping, supernatural resting and producing, seasons of trial and seasons of victory. I sometimes feel as though I’ve lived more than one life. Having traveled, and preached, and led, and loved, and birthed, and mothered, and taught, and performed, and won and lost as much as I have. And simultaneously I feel as though I’ve only just begun. With newborn’s eyes seeing life for the first time.
But what I know to be truer than anything else, the thing I am sure of deep in my bones, is that my God is a redemptive rescuer.
In every ounce of loss and pain I’ve experienced, there has always been redemption. After every season of mourning (some of them slow, gloomy and vast) He is the Joy found in the morning. Each tactic the enemy has used to try to destroy me, my Redeemer has turned miraculously for my good and His glory. Fear thought it could destroy me, but now it sits at the table and watches me feast. Grief thought it would be my end, but now I feast in full view of my enemies. Loneliness tried to overtake me, and now it sees my abundance.
I am living in the beautiful reality of this truth. Everything Jesus does is redemptive. There is not one thing out of His reach to redeem, restore, or reframe.
Nothing has been lost, stolen, or counterfeited that cannot be restored in the most abundantly beautiful and overwhelmingly redemptive way. Not one thing.
I am a rescuer because I have experienced His rescue. I’ve been redeemed and every pocket of my life has been touched by redemption’s promise. He rescued me. He saved me. Soured friendships birthing way to my heart being more deeply known than ever before. The loss of my father paving the way for me to know the Father’s heart more deeply. Heartbreak and loneliness replaced with favor, friendship, and connection. Gripping anxiety melting in the promise of His unearned, unending, unqualified love for me.
Why am I a rescuer? Because I’ve known the touch of a hand reaching down to pull me out of the pit.
My experience of His goodness, His faithfulness and His redemption becomes the bedrock upon which I frame my belief system. This is who He is. This is what He does. And it’s what He does for everyone, every time.
It is my faith’s responsibility now to believe that the incredible survivors who make the brave steps towards freedom will experience His redemptive power in every place something was lost, stolen and counterfeited in their lives.
And those on the other side, still longing for the Rescuer Redeemer to find them, can be met with the most thorough, powerful, loving restoration.
When you encounter Jesus, the only response is pure, Holy worship. When you’ve met His goodness, His goodness pours out of you. Becoming a rescuer is my inheritance. Because my Dad is in the business of redemption. His very Spirit is inside of me, drawing me unto His likeness and calling me to be like Him. Empowering me to be Him to those He died to save.
Answering the question, “Why me? Why am I a rescuer?” is easy for me. If you’ve encountered His faithfulness, if you’ve tasted His goodness, let the water-line of your faith rise to match this experience.
