Today is the first day of Lent and so we begin our season of drawing near to God…

Let me start by asking you a question: what’s standing in the way of you drawing near to God?

I think the easy, surface-type answers include things like: too much television, internet and video games. Too busy with work. Too much to do around the house. Too tired looking after young children. Too much homework.

I don’t want to minimize those concerns, well, actually I do. They’re not the real issues. At best, they’re just symptoms. Sure, you will need to say “no” to some things to free up some time, but there’s something deeper going on.

I’ll tell you what the real issue is for me. Maybe you’ll be able to relate.

I fail to draw near to God more than I do because of shame and guilt. I sin. I feel guilty. Even shame. And that keeps me from seeking Him with all my heart.

I have difficulty shaking that feeling that He’s got to be annoyed with me. Or at least a little disappointed. At some point His patience has got to wear a little thin, right? I mean, come on, how many times can I confess the same sin and expect Him to not doubt my sincerity?

Inherent in those feelings is the core issue, the central problem that keeps me from drawing near to God:

I have an incorrect view of myself and of God.

It’s a problem my mother also battled all of her adult life. My mother died just over fourteen years ago at the age of 59. I believe there were several defining moments in her life that prevented her from truly drawing near to God.

Those defining moments included an abortion, the death of an infant child (my brother) and the break-up of a relationship caused by her mother. There may have also been sexual abuse in her childhood.

I believe my mother carried those experiences around with her all of her life and allowed them to define her. She rarely spoke about the death of my brother, Robert, and never spoke about the other issues. I only learned most of these things after her death.

What I don’t think my mother ever accepted, and I struggle with as well, is this simple truth:

God is head-over-heals in crazy love with us. And nothing you or I do or don’t do is going to change that fact.

It’s an irrational love. It’s an obsessive love. It’s the kind of love that makes you do things you wouldn’t do if you were thinking clearly. If we knew people who loved like this, we’d be telling them to tone it down, to back-off, to stop embarrassing themselves.

It’s a furious, fantastic, out-of-this-world Love that says, “I know what you’ve done, but I don’t want to talk about that. And I want you to stop bringing it up. It’s over with. Done. I put that on my Son. He paid for it, so let it go. I have. Now let’s talk about how much I love you! Let’s talk about my grace, because you really don’t understand it.”

So today, as we begin these 40+ days of drawing near to God, know this: you are not defined by your sin. If you have placed your faith in Christ, your sin is gone. Forgiven. Forgotten. It’s as far from you as the east is from the west. Never to be brought up again.

God is not angry with you, disappointed in you or losing His patience with you. He’s madly in love with you. His arms are always open wide.

He is calling you to draw near. Today. Right now.

You are not your sin. Your sin is not you.

You are a dearly loved, totally-accepted-just-the-way-you-are child of God. And He wants you to know that nothing, absolutely nothing…nothing you’ve done, nothing you’ve said, nothing you’ve thought, nothing you’ll do later today or tomorrow or next week, will ever, ever, ever, ever “be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39)

So draw near to Him. There’s nothing in the way.