As a fellow ragamuffin on the road whose trying to figure out this whole life thing, I give you permission to be imperfect. To be broken and scarred.

You can be yourself and not be ashamed. You don’t always have to be at your absolute best all the time. You don’t have to put up a wall everytime you go through seasons of discouragement and disillusionment. You can take the mask off. You can be you.

I give you permission to make mistakes, to admit that you’ve veered off the straight and narrow path and lost your way. You don’t have to have every single thing figured and planned and mapped out. You can own up to being weak and feeling like a nobody and feeling alone and insignificant. You don’t always have to be strong and have everything in your life together.

I give you permission to not be religious and super-spiritual. You can be free to say that sometimes during prayer, the words won’t come and all you can do is lie in a fetal position in the arms of Jesus and let Him sing over you.

I can give you permission, not because I’ve finally had my great and monumental breakthrough and am now super-duper saint with a halo. I am one who has been there many times. Sometimes I’ve been able to be transparent and confide in others. Sometimes I’ve put on my best Sunday smile and worn the one-size-fits-all mask.

It’s okay to be a doofus and a nerd and to not fit in. It’s okay to be an outsider, because Jesus and his disciples were really and truly outsiders in terms of the culture and religion of their day.

It’s okay because God delights in you just as you are. He loves you too much to leave you in your filth and shame, but He still loves you even when you’re wallowing in it. God loves you right now where you are.

Let God’s love fill you and change you. Be who God made you to be. Never be ashamed of what God is doing in your life. Let every moment of your waking life be filled with the thought, “My Abba is very fond of me!”

As always, I believe. Help my unbelief.