Redeemed!

Who would have thought that Tiger Woods would walk off the Masters Course with a win?  Everything about it was beautiful. His response. Hugging his kids, girlfriend and loved ones. The crowds’ response. A spectacular moment in sports, for sure.

The victory electrified golf fans and also people like me who don’t care so much about golf. The Tiger Woods saga is a long tale of woes that began the night he crashed his car in 2009, leading to revelations of infidelity, the breakup of his marriage and years of struggling to overcome sexual addiction and back pain. Tiger had been struggling for more than a decade and at one point, two years ago at the Masters dinner for champions, said these words “I’m done.”

Helen Raleigh, wrote “His personal failings reminded us that we are all fallible. His physical failings remind us how fragile our own bodies are and how little control we have. Like a funhouse mirror, his outsized fall forced us to star back at a reality we didn’t want to face.” Raleigh went on to write “Wood’s redemption on Palm Sunday serves a good reminder for all of us that no matter how far we fall- or how flawed we are- we can all be redeemed.”

Have you reached a point in life when you uttered the words ‘I’m done?’ You know, that point when you realize you just can’t be good enough or strong enough or perfect enough? That moment when you know you botched it and have to admit it? That moment where you know you need help?

This past week, I lamented about my own sinful tendencies. It was very, very real. Then, I remembered the beautiful reality of what took place Easter! Jesus took every last one of my sinful tendencies and desires to the cross- 2000 years ago! Because of Jesus Christ, I have experienced redemption!

Easter is behind us, but life is ahead of us. Your response to Easter and all that it’s about makes all the difference in the world.

Redeemed 

Seems like all I can see was the struggle

Haunted by ghosts that lived in the past

Bound up in shackles of all my failures

Wondering how long is this gonna last

Then You look at this prisoner and say to me “Son

Stop fighting a fight that’s already been won”

I am redeemed, You set me free

So I’ll shake off these heavy chains

And wipe away every stain now I’m not who

I used to be

I am redeemed

I’m redeemed..... 

(Song by Big Daddy Weave)

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

"But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; on him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and by his stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

Nancy Abbott is the Chaplain of the YMCA of Greater San Antonio.