It doesn’t make sense to me, the theology of all humans having ‘original sin’ which Jesus then enabled God to forgive fully, by dying on the cross.
I’m not saying it’s not true but it’s a sort of abstract legal transaction that doesn’t seem to relate to my actual day-by-day, moment-by-moment life.
Experientially it makes more sense to me to think in terms of continual, ongoing, re-orienting ourselves towards God, to being better (less selfish, more generous) human beings.
I believe God is always reaching out to us, saying “Where are you, Helen?” if I am hiding because I’m afraid I’ve done something wrong and now I’m afraid of what comes next. He does the same for me as for Adam and Eve when they chose not to keep his rule about the one tree and then after breaking it they hid in fear.
So he comes after us, he calls us back into a close relationship free from fear and hiding, only bounded by his Love for us. And he does this not once or twice but every time we pull away, inadvertently or intentionally.
He says “do better, be better” which can be oh so hard. Yet these are possible with and through him because he provides the way, through his Spirit in us. I believe this spirit was always in us, but we sometimes let its voice be drowned out.
I really appreciate Keith Green’s rendering of Psalm 51 which speaks of our role in responding when God says “Where are you? Did you do the thing I told you not to do?” (it’s so embarrassing to have to say yes to that question, but until we say yes we cannot be healed and restored. Honesty is the only way)
It seems like a good prayer to begin a new year with. It’s not wrong to pray more simply to be filled with the Spirit of the Living God – as in this chorus – if there is also that heart-attitude, not expressed in the words of the chorus, of, I want to be all yours, I want to turn away from all the things tha t have held me back from being used by you in the past. Some hymns and choruses help us to the right heart attitude; with others we sort of need to bring it ourselves.
May 2022 be a year in which we see the tide turned back in God’s direction, in our own lives, in our communities and for the very earth itself, all of which we have hurt so much through our pride and selfishness and greed. May it be a year like none other because we are finally ready to do what God has always been calling us to do. Amen.