This comes from Brennan Manning.
Upon being told by her sister Martha that Jesus had arrived in Bethany and wanted to see her, Mary got up quickly and went to Him (11:29).
Mary of Magdala is heartbroken and tearful when she finds the tomb empty. At the moment of recognition when Jesus calls her name, she clung to him—”Do not cling to me, because 1 have not yet ascended to the Father” (20:17).
As soon as Peter and John receive word of the empty tomb, they ran together to the garden, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first (20:3-4).
Peter, the denier of Jesus, a failure as a friend in the hour of crisis, a coward in his soul before the servant-girl in the courtyard, jumped into the water almost naked once John told him Jesus was on shore. “At these words ‘It is the Lord,’ Simon Peter, who had practically nothing on, wrapped his cloak round him and jumped into the water” (21:7). John notes that the boat was about a hundred yards offshore.These biblical characters, however clean or tawdry their personal histories may have been, are not paralyzed by the past in their present response to Jesus. Tossing aside self-consciousness they ran, clung, jumped, and raced to Him. Peter denied Him and deserted Him, but he was not afraid of Him.
Suppose for a moment that in a flash of insight you discovered that all your motives for ministry were essentially egocentric, or suppose that last night you got drunk and committed adultery, or suppose that you failed to respond to a cry for help and the person committed suicide. What would you do?Would guilt, self-condemnation, and self-hatred consume you, or would you jump into the water and swim a hundred yards at breakneck speed toward Jesus? Haunted by feelings of unworthiness, would you allow the darkness to overcome you or would you let Jesus be who He is—a Savior of boundless compassion and infinite patience, a Lover who keeps no score of our wrongs?
Watch out Jesus, here I come!!
Windblown Hope 
Bro, I loved this, thank you!
But isn’t this exactly what our loving Father has been and continues to offer us second by second, my free will ability to either choose life or death??
Funny how we can cop out by giving into the liars voice, hey man, do you think for one second you can choose to respond to Life, aren’t you aware of all the shit you’ve done?? Ergo,the devil made me choose death!
Can you hear his hearts cry, Come unto Me?
I have nver looked at it this way before.I thankyou for opening my eyes and making me consider my response to Jesus – I am sure it would be a combination of the last paragraph.
Hmm… not consumed yet. 😉
Jesus present with me has been, on many occasions, the only thing that kept me from being consumed.
Hi, so how do one let go of 33 years worth of hiding, guilt trips, self-hatred? Especially if trust in Him who can save, does not come naturally? Should I patiently wait out another 33 years?
In my first love with Him I was like that: I HAVE TO BE WITH YOU. PLEASE DON”T LEAVE WITHOUT ME. But now, there’s no emotional sea ride (which I’m grateful for). It’s only a constant patter of ‘I love you – accept My love’ and my subconscience screaming ‘What do You want with me?’ How do one accept love, especially His kind of love, if love always hurts in the end? How do one trust?
To Richard, I’m pleased you liked it. Yes, Jesus always calls us TO Him.
Hi Mark R, how is it on the streets 🙂 What I love about this is that the people around Jesus knew He was Holy. Still all their actions are towards Him. They did not hide from Him as Adam and Eve did.
and Katherine. I’m glad that you’ve never been consumed by all the bad stuff. It could have been so easily different. May God’s light always shine upon you!!
To Saroné,
you let go of stuff by letting it go. Hiding, guilt and self-hatred is not stumbling blocks for Him. When you hide, He is there with you. When you wallow in the guilt, He is there with you. When a bout of self-hatred comes, He is there with you. You are loved…AS YOU ARE. This includes when you are angry. This includes when you not content with your life. This includes all the ugly things only you know of. You are loved…AS YOU ARE.
Do you ever let God just love you, or must you be a good girl?
Trust in God, first of all, is not easy. It can be described as a choice in faith. It comes with the realization that there are things we don’t know. It comes from a place where we know we cannot hide from him or manipulate Him to do what we want. We stand naked. We have nothing to offer. We have no bargaining power. It means all our dreams may be crushed. It means that we will be vulnerable. We may get hurt. There are no guarantees. Trust in God implies that He gets His way and not that we get our way. Trust gives over, everything to Him. Trust can only happen when you know you are loved. You put your feet firmly on the ground and you decide, “I will follow You Father, no matter what.” “No matter what”, includes all your sin and it includes every failure you have done, is doing and will do in the future.
“What do You want with me?” If He replies, “Nothing, I just want to be with you.” Will that be enough for you?
May you find peace in Him who loves you very much.
I loved this one. Thanks for posting it – I love it.
One of the things I began praying for awhile back was that my love for God could become unabashed. Completley unembarressed to simply and completely love my Savior. He’s working the change in me slowly, but in these peoples lives its a perfect and true example of exactly what that unabashed love would look like.
If you ever see me running around half naked though… I strongly suggest you pray. 🙂
Hi Flyawaynet,
Half naked? I’ll probably first look and then pray 🙂 Hold on to your prayer to love Jesus unabashed. It’s a wonderful prayer.