Dear Younger Me

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

I recently heard the song “Letter to Me” by Brad Paisley, in which the singer-songwriter talks about writing a letter to his younger self, sharing wisdom and hope learned in hindsight of teenage heartache and youthful experiences. The song ends with “I wish you wouldn’t worry/Let it be/I’d say have a little faith/And you’ll see…” Hearing that song was an interesting coincidence, as the earworm I’ve had in my head since the MercyMe concert has been “Dear Younger Me”, a song written in the same vein, but the knowledge of the background of the song makes it that much more meaningful. You see, a friend of lead singer Bart Millard’s happens to be a professional athlete who fell in love with baseball because he was abused by babysitters as a child, and he chose baseball because he said that it [the baseball field] was the one place they [the babysitters] couldn’t get to. When Millard heard that in a television interview, he texted him these words, which he then turned into the lyrics of an extremely moving song:

If I knew then what I know now/Condemnation would have no power /My joy and pain would never be my worth/If I knew then what I knew now/It wouldn’t be hard to figure out/What I would’ve changed/If I had heard “Dear younger me, it’s not your fault/You were never meant to carry this beyond the cross.”

Millard knew of which he wrote, because his father was horribly abusive to him when Millard was a child.

I have known people who have defined themselves by the things that happened to them or by the mistakes they made earlier in life (or, like me, both). They struggle to overcome the shame and pain, and the enemy’s reminders of past hurts and failures keep many people a prisoner to their past, their perceived worth non-existent.

I’ve also known people, brothers and sisters in Christ, who have experienced the same type of trauma but who have been able to see their worth only in the imputed righteousness of our Savior. Some have expressed regret in having gone through the experiences that they did, either by their own hand or by others’, while others have expressed remorse about the time it took them to come to know Christ, feeling guilty about the perceived loss of time in accomplishing Kingdom work.

Friends, hear me now: what you have experienced is all part of God’s plan—the good (God be praised!), the seemingly bad (God be thanked for those trials), and what seems to be the ugly (remember Paul’s words to the Corinthians: “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.” 2 Corinthians 4:17). The experiences that you went through made you who are you, and positioned you in such a way that you could be a witness to others—those who have experienced what we have—to help them through their trials. Paul points this out to the Corinthians: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

Some of you need to know that the things that happened to you when you were younger are simply not your fault, and I beg you to not let anyone (least of all yourself!) tell you otherwise.

Some of you need to know that you are not defined by your bad choices and mistakes—that you are defined as a child of God and so desperately loved by Almighty God.

Some of you need to know that your salvation moment was on God’s timeline, not yours, and that you weren’t ready to accept Christ as your savior until that moment you did.

Let the Holy Spirit work on your heart to enable you to accept the things that I just wrote. The Lord Jesus has ransomed you, snatching you away from the grip of eternal damnation and declared your worth. The Creator of the universe has forgiven you—now it’s time to forgive yourself. The Prince of Peace loves you—now it’s time to love and value yourself, not for what you are or what you have done but for what He has done.

Prayer Requests

·      Comfort and encouragement for those who are caregivers

·      For law enforcement and first responders

·      For those in military service and for their families

·      For us to share the love of Jesus with this broken world 

Dear ones, I don’t want anyone to think that God is mean-spirited and that His plans are to throw trials and tribulations your way, that He causes things to happen and you’re just at the whim of His capriciousness. That is simply not the case. God does not cause bad things to happen to us, but He does sometimes allow those things to occur because He can use them later to bring you or someone else closer to Himself.  

 Quotes

“You are holy, You are righteous, You are one of the redeemed, Set apart, a brand new heart, You are free indeed.”  -- MercyMe from “Dear Younger Me”

 “We’ve made loving people a lot more complicated than Jesus did.”