A Sinner is a Sinner


Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Psalm 20:7

Earlier today I was listening to some songs that have really touched my life and enhanced my faith experience. They are performed and were written by an amazingly talented young woman who according to her songs, has great faith. She is also a sinner. She made her sin a very public thing a few years ago. Before that we, in the world, knew nothing about it but she was painfully aware of it, all too painfully aware. Her songs take on a richer, deeper meaning to me when you know of her struggle. Other people find them invalid because of what she has done. If you are one of those people stop reading right here because while my sins may be very different from hers they are still sins. That makes me a sinner and if you can ‘t appreciate the perspective of one sinner, you most likely won’t appreciate the perspective of another. The difference between that woman and me is that I am better able to keep my sins hidden.

The songs I love the most are the ones where she speaks of herself as God’s daughter. She asks in one song if knowing her sin He will accept her back into His heart. Truth is, she never left because God’s love never fails. She sings about redemption and wanting to please her Father. She sings about the ridiculousness of trusting in anything other than God Himself. She speaks of Jesus and Peter as her brothers. She speaks from a heart filled with faith.

I said the difference between us was in the variety of our sins. The similarity is in how we’ve both wrestled with our sins. We have both mourned our choices, asked for mercy, leaned on God’s understanding and patience and trusted in His holy name.
Romans 3:23 says that we’ve all sinned. That’s the truth, more to the point it’s the Truth. The question is once we’ve realized our sins and repented what will we do with them? God wastes nothing and neither should we. If we can put our struggle in words for a huge audience or even for one person we can make the experience mean something. We can save it from being simple, selfish sin. We can use our own brokenness to help others around us heal.

I’m so glad that that young woman didn’t let guilt keep her from writing her songs or singing them or recording them. I appreciate her willingness to let us crawl into her wounds in order to find a way to mend our own. God is faithful and just. He will hear our prayers and He will love us even when large numbers of people are pointing judgmental fingers our way. In Him we find redemption and mercy, even when we can’t find it anywhere else.

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