Tait still has a place at the Table

 

My heart has hurt this week for Tait, his band mates, his family…what a heavy burden to carry all these years alone and not know what to do or where to start turning to deal with his sin. My rock has dropped from my hand and fallen on the path of grace and mercy God set me on! 

I’m not far behind Tait in my sin and shame. What courage he had to step out and confess and seek help. I’m not sitting here saying what he did isn’t a big deal, it is. What I’m saying is as someone who has battled from the pits of hell in my own life and lived to tell it, he has battled through and still is and living to tell it! 

We Christian folks like to wound our broken.  The lyrics we of the 90s took to heart with DC Talk: “What if I stumble? What if I fall? What if I lose my step and make fools of us all? Will the love continue when my walk becomes my crawl?”

Has the love continued? I don’t know, but I’m praying that someone will come along side Tait, love him unconditionally and help him back up. I imagine there are people out there who hope to see his life go up in flames, justice does call for that. But God. Scripture shows us HIS heart for all of us whether we are wicked Bombing Israel, protestors terrorizing sovereign streets, or whether we are saved believers who have lost our step and fallen in a deep pit of sin wrecking our own havoc. 

The prophet Ezekiel says of the Lord who lives forever, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that they turn from their evil ways and live!” (33:11) 

If God is calling the wicked back, He’s calling His beloved back. God who has adopted all who believe into His Kingdom family and sat us at the table with Him. We don’t sit alone! Tait doesn’t sit alone. We are meant to enjoy a “ting” of glasses coming together. Loud belly laughs above the hell we’ve just been through. We are safe and we are loved. Were it not for grace! Were it not for Calvary! Thank God in your darkest day He began a good work in you, and have been renewed for HIS name sake! Further in Ezekiel the Lord promises to clean us up from our whoring around, the idol worship that has caused us to be unrecognizable! He promises to give us a new heart and new spirit…His Spirit that does the doing! (Ez. 36) 

God, I thank you for how you make us brave to come clean and tell on Satan. To tell on ourselves and run to you to clean us up. Lord, sometimes it’s so bad we can’t even find ourselves running to you, but you find us stuck in doing what you told us not to do. Help us lean into your loving embrace of us, to know you are for us and not out to get us and whip us in anger. Jesus drank the full cup of your wrath. 

I lift up Tait to you, God, and many out there caught up in the same entrapments. Press their hearts. Send them people who will help pull them up and get back on the right track. It’s so easy to lose our way when we get caught up in things that seem harmless. The compromise that doesn’t seem that bad, the reasoning with the devil who whispers and tries to entice. We are a dumb people who need you, God. Thank you for giving us your Holy Spirit to help with that. Thank you for Your Word God. That as we hold our Bibles we would declare, “This is Gods Word.” May we strive to not be passive but actively in pursuit of you, God. We don’t know what to do without you. May we always remain humble before you and others we walk this way with, God. Thank you for the gift of each other that we can lean on and support. To sharpen each other and love each other. We cast down our entitled attitudes, and assumptions and let you be the judge. 

How beautiful and wonderful your heart God. In the power of your name, Jesus. Amen.