The dip

Some traditions focus on the good.

God’s grace. The love and joy he pours out on us. And all of the effervescence that goes with that.

Others get stuck on the bad. 

Namely, us and our sin. Repentance. Mercy.

But in their own way, both paths wrong.

Because the challenge is not picking the right one, but instead believing them both, simultaneously.

Seth Godin has a book called The Dip. In it, he talks about having to go down before you can go up. The dip.

He does a good job of explaining it. But it’s hardly original. In fact, it’s a part of the story of every follower of Jesus.

My friend and mentor, Jack, said in his sermon Sunday, “Confess your failures to the one person in the entire world who has the authority to say to repentant sinners, ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go from here and sin no more.’”

There’s a lot packed into those few words.

A full relationship with God is about both the bad (who we really are) and the good (who we’ve really become).

We know when we get here, because awe is the feeling we can’t quite shake.