my place

i am not a runner.  however, as chicago moves into a colorful collage of yellows and reds, being outside is much more appealing than the stuffy bally down the road.  so yesterday morning i took off, my pink sauconys crunching through the leaves.  on went the ipod and off went all the concerns of the week.  a few minutes into my run a song by leeland came through my headphones and i was reminded of my place... and the place where i should find myself and yet by God's grace, the place where i am not. 

We who were called to be Your people
Struggling sinners and thieves
We’re lifted up from the ashes
And out came the song of the redeemed
The song of the redeemed

We have caught a revelation
That nothing can separate us from
The love we received through salvation
It fills your daughters and your sons
Your daughters and your sons

these words compelled my thoughts and i began to make a mental list of where i should still be...

in a place that is filled with sin and darkness... 

a place of hopelessness and separation... 

confusion and chaos... 

lost and alone... 

cut off, removed, weak, futile... 

unloved and with no chance... 

condemned to die... 

a place of pain.... 

dirty and completely aware of my lack of ability to ever experience freedom... 

a place where God is unknown and unknowable...

and yet, this is not the place where i find myself...

i am in a place where there is freedom and unity with my Savior...

i have been made new, i am accepted and made holy...

i am in a place full of love and unity...

a place where i find healing and am healed...

i am able to MEET WITH GOD...

not only can i meet with God, He has given me a new place in HIS FAMILY...

i am not merely an acquaintance, i am family and have been given the rights that members of a family are given...

i am fully loved and complete...

i am in a place of friendship and peace...

i am new and have been set free from the place i once found myself...

and i will never return.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 

The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17