What Do You Do with Your Rips and Dents?
by Tracey Smith
Christian recording artist Francesca Battistelli penned a song called Free to Be Me after a particularly trying day which included reversing into someone else’s car. The song became something of an anthem for anyone needing freedom from the pressure to always get everything right. Despite bemoaning her clumsiness and perfectionism, Francesca knew God looked past the dents in her fender and the rips in her jeans and loved her anyway.
Cause I got a couple dents in my fender, got a couple rips in my jeans
Try to fit the pieces together but perfection is my enemy
An' on my own I'm so clumsy, but on Your shoulders I can see
I`m free to be me.
Francesca’s song resonates strongly with Christians because we are not immune from the search for the elusive freedom to be ourselves in today’s world – perfection is the standard the world sets and it is a hard taskmaster. If we strive for that kind of perfection – never making any mistakes - we are doomed to fail.
We know our dents and rips all too well. But do we let God into these places, the ones that bring pain or embarrassment or shame? If we haven’t been in the practice of getting up on God’s shoulders and bringing Him the less than perfect pieces of our lives, we can become so used to carrying the bad feelings attached to them that we forget there is any other way to feel.
The truth is, only God is perfect. Only God. If He created us to be perfect, we wouldn’t have needed a Saviour, would we? God knew we would never be perfect, that mistakes would be made. Most importantly, He knew we would need saving. He knew we would need Jesus.
I’m not about to argue with His wisdom on this. Are you?
God wants us to be like Jesus – that’s the perfection He holds up for us to follow. He also knew we’d find it a massive challenge, so He ensured Jesus taught us about forgiveness and grace and taking everything to the Father. So, that’s the model we need to follow every day of our lives.
God is always waiting for you to bring to Him your pieces that you think don’t fit. He sees the bigger picture. He wants to be with you through everything - ready, willing and more than able to lovingly repair every rip and dent.
Are you ready to get up on His shoulders and ask?
Tracey Smith Tracey and her husband Cameron have been involved with Ellel since 2003, when Tracey did a Healing Retreat. They both did NETS in 2004 and both have served on the Associate Ministry Team at Ellel Sydney since 2005, moving onto base to serve fulltime in 2011. Tracey’s passions are communications and creativity, and seeing God move in both to bring healing to His people.
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