Canceled

Canceled. It’s a word being tossed around quite a bit these days. Our culture is quick to it. We are fast to embrace the belief that we might be able to remove or wipe away anything we deem wrong, inappropriate, untoward.

I kind of get it. As a mother, I have experienced all sorts of words, behaviors and attitudes over the years which I would have really liked to flat out cancel. “You’re going to talk that way to your sister? Well then, guess what? You’re canceled! Go to your room.” Bam! Problem fixed. Child removed. Door closed. Peace restored. 

Except that it doesn’t really work that way in real life. There’s more to address. There’s something deeper to the problem and there’s definitely more to this process than just shutting down behaviors, sending people away and slamming doors. 

There’s the heart. 

There’s the SIN in the heart. 

And there’s only One who can truly get to the root of it. Jesus. 

There are all sorts of very real and terrible issues in our world. All sorts of words, behaviors and attitudes which need to be removed, wiped away and eradicated. 

Not just in my world, but in my own heart.

But these things aren’t just culture problems, they are sin problems. And they cannot be curbed without the power and the blood of Jesus. I don’t care who you think you are or what moral authority you think you have — Jesus is the only One who can penetrate the heart, expose the sin and CANCEL it completely.

He died on the cross for this very reason: To Cancel Sin! Not the person, but the pain. The sin. The debt. The disease of our ugly human hearts. 

The answer isn't canceling people, it's coming alongside them. Like Jesus did. It's not pointing out the PROBLEM, it's pointing them to the ANSWER.

We can close the doors all the day long. We can shut people down and cross people off. We can point our fingers and shake our fists and stomp our feet and shout our accusations … but it will always end in futility, frustration and further fear. Because at the end of the day behind the closed door and the canceled person is STILL a broken heart which only Jesus can heal. 

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses. … God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by CANCELING the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13-14

Colossians 2 captures the truth  —

We are dead in our sins. 

God makes us alive in His forgiveness. 

He CANCELS our debt.

He (already has) NAILED it to the cross. 

Dear broken, messy, mixed up world ... THIS is Good News!

THIS, and only THIS, is what brings True Life, Real Healing, Restored Relationship, Right Living, Respect, Freedom, Grace, Hope …  and Love. 

Jesus. 

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.”   Romans 8:1-3