A Front Row Seat

I had a front row seat
A few months ago
A front row seat to my sin

The consequences of choices I let take root
Now an overwhelming forest
A place I can feel too timid to tread

My sins before felt so light
Blow them away like the fluff on a weed
But with this, I've glimpsed my true nature

Yet I've been freed from being the Pharisee who judges
Skeletons preening into whitewashed mirrors
It was the judged one who broken sought the Healer

Heed the the Son of Man as he draws in the dirt
Listen to the message of the Milgram Experiment
"But by the grace of God there walk I"

"Little" sins, outgrowths of self-serving and not loving
Burrs disguised as common flowers like the thistle
Latched on, only lacking conditions to spread the "bigger"

This is a grim message, but accept it and it frees us
No more pride that we're better, shock when we're worse
We all circle lost in the woods on our own

And may I dare to say? There may be a day
I will be thankful for my front row seat
For the honest view of this field full of briers

When we lament our clear-viewed hearts,
Humbly repent over our daily decay to be reclaimed
There in the shade of the Hawthorn Tree: A Forgiver's embrace

He won't throw a stone, He will kneel
To wash our feet and make us clean
He will turn it all to dandelion wine, call us new creation

Was it a mistake? Risen Redeemer seen as the gardener
He awaits the invitation to come daily down into the dust
Hands torn with thorns, He gently tends new seeds


References: Luke 18:9-14, John 8:1-11, Matthew 23:27-27, Luke 7: 36-50, 1John 1:8, 2 Corinthians 5:17, John 13:1-17








A dahlia bulb- just a dry husk
But it could say, "Hey, I'm good enough!"
But if it accepts it is rather rough
It can die to itself and transform above