Listen

Then one of the elders said to me, “Who are these people wearing white robes, and where did they come from?”

I said to him, “Sir, you know.”

Then he said to me, “These people have come out of great hardship. They have washed their robes and made them white in the Lamb’s blood. This is the reason they are before God’s throne. They worship him day and night in his temple, and the one seated on the throne will shelter them. They won’t hunger or thirst anymore. No sun or scorching heat will beat down on them, because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them. He will lead them to the springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Revelation 7:13-17

Think

There are some great things about social media but often it causes me to compare my real, messy, imperfect life with other people’s carefully curated, filtered, and narrated images. It’s never a fair fight because I always lose the comparison game.

When I read, “These people have come out of great hardship” (verse 14), I know this Gospel is for our real lives. It isn’t merely an Instagram-able faith, carefully curated. This is not just for the Snap sent from a party. It tells us clearly, this Gospel is for the invisible, forgettable, left out, and overlooked. This Gospel is for the tired, weak, and sick; for the grief-stricken, lost, and last. It is for the ones who have lived through hardship. This is for our real lives.

Hear the good news of the place God has already created for us.

Sarah Karber

Pray

God, you want me to bring my whole self to you, leaving nothing out. Yet sometimes I hold back. Free me to be my complete messy self. Amen.

Go

Those who find me find life; they gain favor from the Lord.

Proverbs 8:35