EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2021 I began a new venture writing a newspaper column titled "Finding Faith" for the Forum Communications Co. network of newspapers and websites. I was asked to contribute to the company's ongoing conversation about faith, lending a Lutheran and fairly ecumenical approach to the discussion. The column was published in several of the company's papers and websites, including The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. This column originally appeared as a "Finding Faith" column on Feb. 5, 2022.
By The Rev. Devlyn Brooks
Recently, as I finished up a lesson on the Apostle Paul during confirmation, I asked the students what their takeaways were.
“No matter how bad you are, you are never too far gone for God to love you,” blurted a student.
For this to make sense, it helps to know something of Paul, who was originally named Saul before his conversion to Christianity. As a Jewish Pharisee, Saul was responsible for terrible persecutions of early Christians. Until one day he had an encounter with Jesus, which forever changed Paul’s life.
In his letters, found in the Bible’s New Testament, Paul writes about not being worthy of God’s love, which might surprise many. You mean that the most instrumental apostle in the history of the Christian church doubted his worthiness to receive God’s mercy? … Yes! … But he also realized it was God’s grace that mattered, not his own self-assessment.
I’ve noticed that the single greatest obstacle to a relationship with God for so many is not their worthiness in God’s eyes, but rather it is their own self-doubt, self-loathing and belief they are not good enough to receive God’s love.
Our world -- Western society in particular -- loves judgment. We are taught from birth that there is a narrow path to being accepted. That everything is binary. You are good or bad. You are successful or not. You are of worth or not. And so, from an early age, many fall victim to believing they are not good enough to receive God’s love.
And faith leaders have been some of the worst offenders of this transgression. We’ve preached that if you sin, you are not worthy; that if you suffer addictions; if you’ve been divorced; if you dare not conform to gender expectations; if you are a woman, a person of color, someone who is in poverty, or someone who is not heterosexual, then you are not worthy of God’s love. We’ve done terrific damage from the pulpit too. We are not guilt free.
Our teenagers are keen enough to pick up on these messages that we adults pass on to them. And the lessons need not ever be spoken. Our actions often speak louder than words.
But, on that night, my confirmation student got it right: You are never too far gone for God’s love. If Jesus can find room in his heart to be gracious to Saul, who persecuted Jesus’ followers, then none of us should lose hope.
If you’ve never heard this before, please listen: You are worthy of God’s love, just the way you are. All of us are broken, and thanks to a corrupt world, it is easier to believe we are too far gone to be saved than it is to believe that God loves us anyway.
That is not the case. … Just ask my confirmation class.
Devlyn Brooks, who works for Modulist, a Forum Communications Co.-owned company, is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He serves as pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. He can be reached at devlyn.brooks@forumcomm.com for comments and story ideas.
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