irrevocable.

i'm in tacoma this week. or rather i should say i drive to tacoma and come right back home every day this week. this is my last rotation, and thanfully, my preceptor is pretty relaxed. i have some assignments to do, but don't necessarily have to be in the office to do them. so susie and i drive down around 9 in the morning, attend a meeting or a conference, maybe observe a school or a class, and head back to seattle around noon. fantastic from the free-time perspective, not so much for gas. next week's outlook is similar. it's been nice, because i've been able to run errands and get little odds and ends done. today i had coffee with a friend, and tonight i'm hanging out with a couple more. i do need to work on my projects...but that will come soon enough.

i had coffee with my friend dana on wednesday morning- we're both early birds, so we met at 7am. (which is actually late for us, because the last time we met it was at 6:15.) it was a really great conversation that made me think, we talked about all kinds of things, including good bible truth. at the end we both had things that we have been praying about lately, so we prayed before we left. an hour later, as susie and i were driving to tacoma, i remember thinking (as we sped down the highway at 70mph) that if something were to happen, and we were to crash, or a bullet were to fall from the sky, or our car were to get struck by lightning, it would be okay because my heart was "right" with the Lord. but what was i basing that "status" on? the fact that i had a God-glorifying conversation and time of heartfelt prayer that morning? as if those things can earn salvation or make me right in the eyes of God. heart check. God cannot love me any more or any less than he already does. time in prayer or truth-centered conversation doesn't change my "salvation status," if you will. the Lord is pleased with these things, yes. but regardless of if i had had that conversation that morning or not, my soul is still securely declared righteous in the eyes of the Lord, not because i have done the right things, but because He has deemed it so. because Jesus died to pay the penalty for my sins, to justify my soul before a righteous God. He chose to redeem me, nothing i do or don't do can change that.

this mindset is pivotal! to understand that we're not earning salvation, we have already been given it, and act out of thankfulness in response. we talked about this same concept at community group last week, that so often we do things because, as Christians, we think that we "should." a distorted perception. there is so much freedom in understanding that WE ARE SAVED when we truly confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised Him from the dead (romans 10:9), and that nothing we could ever do could earn that for ourselves. it's only by grace. i pray often that this mindset would be my default, that i would be operating out of the truth that i can't mess up God's plan, that i don't have to earn His love. i just get to rest in it.

i am irrevocably His.
motivation rooted in thankfulness, not laden with duty and obligation.

love,
tracey