"With my first breath I drew in depravity, needing your mercy even in my first hour." So say my favorite lyrics from one of Bethany Dillon's newest songs.
Depravity: moral perversion; impairment of virtue; a corrupt practice; a depraved condition I have lately and yet again been made acutely aware of my own tendency to depravity. I have a tendency to perversion. I have a tendency to corruption. I tend toward impaired virtue. Even in my good deeds and kind actions, my motives will be found tainted if truly scrutinized by the magnifying glass of honesty. Most days I feel tethered to this reality. And in some ways I am. Until I live in a new body with eternity as my reality, I will continue to live with the pock marks and scars of a broken nature. If I were to bring this up among those of you who do not know Christ, chances are you might tell me I'm being too hard on myself, too dramatic. After all, I'm only human-- and a good human at that. What more can be expected? Perfection or something near to that? No, indeed, when I attempt something near to perfection I will inevitably fail. When I attempt goodness I will attain the shell of it but miss the purity that motivates it truly. I am not good. As bleak and as frustrating as this may seem to my heart and sound to your ears, it is good news when viewed against the backdrop of the Gospel. I am not good. Yet, I know the One who is. I am not capable of doing good with purely good motives. Yet, I am being made into the likeness of the One who boasts all the reality of good in his nature. Jesus came to be good for me, on my behalf, when I was and am incapable of it. This is the good news of the Gospel, and in this news I find much delight. "For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” -Romans 3:9-12 "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." -2 Cor.5:21 "He (the Father) has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." -Colossians 1:13-14
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welcome Audrey DeFord is an artist, illustrator, wife, momma, believer. But not in that order. She currently resides in Texas with her husband Sam, baby girl Flora, French bully Shortstack, & 12
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