Before You Turned Around

We carry a quiet belief that God's love for us rises and falls with our behavior, that he loves us more on the clean days and pulls back on the days we fail. Paul takes aim at that belief with a single sentence about timing. God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Look at when the love was demonstrated. Not after we repented, not once we had proven we were worth it, but while we were still in it, still sinning, still turned the wrong direction.

That timing changes how you read your worst moments. Christ did not die for the improved version of you that you are hoping to become. He died for the you that was mid-sin, unlovely, offering him nothing. The love was proven at your lowest, which means your lowest cannot disprove it now.

So when you fall and the thought arrives that surely this has finally exhausted God's love, remember that his love was already on full display before you had done anything to earn it. It did not begin when you got better. It was there while you were still a sinner, and it holds while you still are.

Father, thank you that you loved me before I turned around, before I deserved anything. Let that settle the question of whether you love me now, and draw me back to you.