We are only a few steps from worshiping something else. We are always just moments from finding another Lord. He repeats four times in the thirty minute sermon. The truth of it rings to so clearly I can see the waves of it hit my heart.

I used to ask,”how could someone do that?” I used to wonder how a person could walk so far down the wrong road, so far into the dark. Now I understand; one step at time. One more step never seems that much further, and suddenly you are at the point of no-return.

But, what in the eyes of my savior and God is the point of no return? “Your abundant compassion blots out my rebellion.” There is never too far, there is never too dark. The light can always be let in.

I taught with people once, who taught me that you had to beat the kids into submission, that the only way the students would listen was if you were the one yelling the loudest. And I yelled the loudest and brandished my stick and I told myself that it was out of love. I had to do, if I loved them, cow them into the right path.

Later I learned, simply by watching how love will always bring around a room. A teacher standing 5 feet tall with birds on her tights can be the biggest presence in a room full of boys who look older than some grown men I know. If you love them bold enough, they listen. Unfailing love blots away transgressions. I don’t even know if she had a blunt stick in her basket of teaching tools. Open arms and an inviting smile had her stray sheep following her happily down the best path.

I don’t know why I was so surprised. Isn’t that how my parents lead? Didn’t they learn that from our God? Compassion blots out rebellion, salvation washes away sin, love wins over blunt force. I am always a few steps from worshipping another, and yet He is always courting me back.

This post is part of a link up at Every Day Awe, many of us are reflecting on Psalm 51