You Are More

“You are more than the choices that you’ve made, You are more than the sum of your past mistakes, You are more than the problems you create…”  those lyrics!!!  From the song “You are more,” by Tenth Avenue North, those lyrics have always found fertile ground in my heart.

I have made mistakes.  So many mistakes.  I have made mistakes as a daughter, a sister, a mother, a wife, and as a friend.  I have failed as a leader and failed as a Christian.  I have failed as a volunteer and as an employee.  I have failed myself.  But that is not the end of my story.

I recently read a blog post where the writer wrote that “I am not my past mistakes.”  While I understand the intentions of that post and that wording, I struggled with it.  Because deep down, I know that I am.  Every failure has defined me in some way.  Every hurt I have caused or have received has etched a memory on my heart.  Every one of those moments influences the decisions I make today.  So, I am the sum of my past mistakes, but the notable difference between the blog post and the song lyrics is the word “more.”

You see, I am the sum of my failures, but I am also more.  I have learned from those mistakes.  I have taken those failures and learned to do something different.  I learned how to do it better, act slower, think more, and pray more. I learned to support better, to walk in more humility, to serve better and to love better.  I learned to apologize better and own my mistakes sooner, and when everything felt broken and beyond repair, I learned to let Jesus’ truth be the loudest truth, not the voices of accusation around me.

In this series of posts about laying down the masks we wear, the most difficult to lay down are the masks that cover our failures, that conceal our broken places, our mistakes, and our doubts. The truth is we all fail, the trick is in failing forward.  Learning from our mistakes, changing the way we do it next time, humbling ourselves and asking for forgiveness, and learning how to forgive ourselves regardless of the others’ response.  When we hide our failure we also hide God’s glory; we hide the beauty of restoration, grace, forgiveness, and unconditional love.

This week, as you walk into the next hard conversation, the next hard decision, the next mess to clean up or plans to change, would you ask Jesus what masks you need to lay down?  Do you need to apologize to someone or own a mistake?  Do you need to admit you don’t know and humbly ask Jesus into the situation?  Do you need to set down fear of failure, and pride and self-image in order to allow the beauty of God’s restoration and peace to shine in your circumstance?

We teach and preach a message of a loving God.  A God who forgives and saves.  A God who restores and heals. This week, can you allow that reflection of God to be seen in your life? 

‘Cause this is not about what you’ve done,
But what’s been done for you.
This is not about where you’ve been,
But where your brokenness brings you to

This is not about what you feel,
But what He felt to forgive you,
And what He felt to make you loved.

You are more than the choices that you’ve made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You’ve been remade.

 – “You Are More,” Tenth Avenue North