Welcome.

I have something really important to say.

YOU ARE WELCOME.

I mean it. You need to listen. This rests heavily on me.

The things in this life that seek to destroy, to tear down, to overwhelm us with despair and make us sick with worry and fear, these things are real.

And all of it - our desperation, our angst, our brokenness, our fear, our uncertainty, our doubt, our exhaustion, our combativeness, our sickness and our shame - is WELCOMED by God.

Because GOD WASTES NOTHING.

In fact, God is all in for our reality.

God WELCOMES real.

Because contrary to the happy-American-Jesus often reflected in pop-culture (gag), God the Father, God the Spirit, God the Son, invites us to a very real, very gritty, very holy faith.

Somewhere out there, there is a parent with an incarcerated child.

And there is a child of a parent with dementia who no longer recognizes them. Your pain is welcome.

Somewhere out there, there is a spouse who is alone with a shattered heart. And there is a shattered heart that was once whole before addiction moved in and called it home. Your brokenness is welcome.

Somewhere out there, there is a loved one battling an unseen mental illness to fully live. And there is a life that was irrevocably altered by the death of a loved one who no longer thought they could. Your anguish is welcome.

Somewhere out there, there is a high-functioning adult who is sorting through childhood abuse. And there is a child trying to survive devastating adult violence surrounding their little body. Your grief is welcome.

Somewhere out there, there is a nice house in a nicer zip code whose inhabitants are crushed with the idolatry of success. And there is a marginalized worker for whom success - access to fresh food and funded education and safe living and affordable healthcare - feels unattainably out of reach. Your weariness is welcome.

Somewhere out there, there is somebody who has rejected the faith because they were disinvited for some superficial reason. And there is someone exhausted from wearing a superficial mask who is crawling toward the refuge of faith. Your shame is welcome.

Friends, hear me today.

GOD WASTES NOTHING. YOU ARE WELCOME.

Welcome to the God of the real.

The God of the gritty.

The God of the holy.

The God who can handle the raw.

Be welcomed, friends.

Because You. Are. Welcome.