Good-bye DDD

Ever had tragedy strike? What about a triple tragedy? About eleven years ago, I experienced some trials. Nothing compared to some but a lot compared to others. After dropping my daughter off at school, I was driving to work and ended up totaling my car. No injuries other than the havoc wreaked by an adrenaline rush and then the crash that soon followed (pun intended). But it was my first accident and I wasn’t sure that I would ever stop shaking. I had never had to navigate an insurance claim and had very little experience in shopping for a car.

The next day, my cousin and I decided to drive the two hours to visit our grandparents; our Papa wasn’t doing well and we wanted to spend as much time with him as possible. We were 30 minutes away when we got the call that we were too late; he had passed. I had missed work due to the accident and was missing work again for a significant death in the family. But there was more to come. A few weeks went by, things were mostly back to normal other than the extra calls with Grandma, and I arrived home to a flooded apartment.

A totaled car, losing my Papa, and now a flooded apartment – all within 30 days. I was a single mom at the time, living paycheck to paycheck – child support was non-existent – as soon as I thought I was doing well, it seemed that something always happened to set me back – like car repairs for instance. I had just closed the insurance claim on the totaled car and found myself on the phone with the insurance company… again. I felt like I was getting a crash course in insurance navigation. I dealt with the car, I was listening to my Grandma talking about the ins and outs of life insurance, and now my rental insurance was being called in to action.

All of this came at a pivotal time in my relationship with God. A year before, almost to the day, I had thrown my hands in the air in surrender. I couldn’t do it myself and I couldn’t do it equipped with my childhood Sunday School lessons. I had to make it personal. I had to find out, for myself, who I was, whose I was, and who my Father was. I had come to the realization that I couldn’t count on someone else’s definition or description of God; rather I had to seek Him out. Matthew 7:7-8 doesn’t say that one person should ask, seek, and knock for someone else to receive, find, and have the door opened. It’s a personal journey. It can be shared, but it is unique to each individual.

I discovered with my insurance claims for the car and the apartment that I wasn’t the only one who was unfamiliar with what my coverage was. I paid a piddly amount for my rental insurance and considered it more of a joke than a necessity. For a single mom with limited funds though, having to buy new mattresses, a new microwave, having clothing and linens professionally cleaned, and having to face the expenses of moving to a new apartment, the insurance certainly came in handy.

I was unfamiliar with my policy, but I knew that as long as I held up my end of the bargain by paying my monthly amount, the insurance company was bound by a contract to uphold their part. Sound familiar? Do I spend time fretting over whether or not the insurance company is going to uphold their end of the deal? Nope! The only time I even give a thought to my insurance is when I see the payment is deducted from the account. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in what we think we have to do that we forget to be who and what we are.

On my journey of discovery that went far beyond Sunday School lessons, I’ve learned that I have assurance in my eternal insurance because I have done one thing: I made the choice to believe.

“Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.'” John 6:28-29 (NIV)

“For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” John 6:40 (NIV)

I grew up with the DDD understanding – that I had to do this, do that, do it all… but in the end I would never be able to do enough. I learned as a child that Jesus died on the cross to save me from my sins, but I needed to be careful to not lose the salvation He had given. A passage used in my childhood to scare us into the “do this, do that, do it all” lifestyle is found in Revelation and is typically misunderstood.

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16 (NIV)

This verse terrified me! As I understood it, if my fire for God wasn’t absolutely roaring, I wasn’t going to measure up. I would forever be lacking and have zero confidence in my salvation. In short, my salvation wasn’t secure. I was driving around without insurance and there was no guarantee that I would have a home to rest in. I actually came to the conclusion as a teen that since I could never do enough and do it perfectly, God was going to spit me out, so what was the point of trying? What I didn’t understand in my youth was that this letter was written to a group of people (Laodiceans) who had a poor understanding of the power of grace.

They had received the good news, the news of God’s wrath forever being satisfied because He stretched out his own arm for our salvation (Isaiah 59:16, Isaiah 63:3-6). They were given the same promise of peace (Isaiah 54:9-10) and their sins – the sins of the whole world (I John 2:2, II Corinthians 5:18-19) – were completely annihilated (Psalm 103:12). The DDD lifestyle was a thing of the past; we were introduced to a new thing, a new way of living (Isaiah 43:18-19) in which we would be led by the Spirit – what He’s written on our hearts – and not by what’s written on stone (Jeremiah 31:31-34). We can call this the AAA lifestyle. But they decided to adjust the temperature.

Instead of resting in the “white-hot love of God” they were mixing it with the “stone-cold demands of the law” (quotes from Paul Ellis). Hot or cold; both perfect. Even though the law was perfect (Psalm 19:7), it was cold and absolute – no grace to be found. It required total perfection and anything less was considered total failure (Deuteronomy 28:15). The white-hot love of God, on the other hand, is full of grace and abounding in love (Ephesians 2:4-9, Psalm 103:8-12). In grace, we rest in the finished work of God because He accomplished all that was impossible for us to do.

We get to drop our DDD lifestyle and rest in a new covenant all because of Jesus – Jesus “did this, did that, did it all” – and He proclaimed “It is finished” (John 19:30).  Because of His finished work in saving us, there’s nothing to add to it to make it better or strengthen the validity of it. If I were to decide to add the cold temperature of the law to the white-hot love of God, I will have become lukewarm. It will no longer be about what He did, but about what I do.

Let today be the day that you shop for a new policy. I can point you to one that covers you as far as the east is from the west and was bought for you at a price you could never have paid. As mentioned earlier, I call it AAA, but it’s not just a lifestyle, it’s an everlasting covenant. And we get to rest in what was already paid for: Amazing Assurance of Acceptance.

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:19-23 (NIV)