Come and Sit on the Couch

As an interior designer, I worked hard to meet the needs of my clients and to create spaces of beauty and function for them. After the paint had dried and the furnishings were put into place, I always did a final walk-through of a new space to ensure everything was properly placed and in working order. Scratches in the wood? I looked for them. A loose string on the fabric? I cut it. A smudge on the glass? I cleaned it. If all was as it should be, then my designer’s heart was at peace. I knew that what I was turning over to my clients was beautiful and efficient, ready to serve them and be enjoyed by them. I went the extra mile for my clients because I cared and because I wanted them to be pleased with what they had purchased.

While I am pleased with what I have designed for you in this book, my heart is not yet at peace. I long for every single one of you to have an eternal peace and to enjoy a relationship with your creative Creator. I care about the scratches, the loose strings, and the smudges in your lives. Here is one last invitation from me to you. I pray you’ll come and finally sit down on the white couch.

I realize some of you believe the things of faith and of God himself to be purely speculative or fictitious. I also realize that some of you are walking through a deep loss of some kind, so you are angry at God or refuse to believe he could even exist. How could a good God allow the horrors that have been done to you or to someone you love or the evils that exist in the world around you? Or maybe there is another reason why you continue to run from God or deny his existence.

Precious one, you are welcome here. I do not pretend to understand your pain or your doubt. I only know that I have doubted God. I have stood with him in the various hallway seasons of my life lost and confused. I have thought the Bible to be a bunch of buffoonery. I have lost much. There were certain seasons of my life when all I could see were scratches and a ton of smudges. There was no peace in my heart. Evil was done to those I love. So I kept running from God. But after a while, I started feeling uneasy for doing so. I kept trying to push him away, but there were reminders of God everywhere. And it scared me. I am no Mother Theresa. How could God possibly love me? I really believed that God couldn’t and wouldn’t love me because of some of the things I had done and continued to do.

But over time I felt increasingly drawn to him. I can’t describe it. I saw other people who weren’t like Mother Theresa being loved by him and loving him back. I wanted the security and peace they had, because I had tried everything else that this world promises would make me whole and make me somebody. And it wasn’t working. Heck, the world still yawns at me, but this no longer bugs me. I am loved deeply by God, and I am whole in the sense that he does provide all that I need. A relationship with Jesus Christ has made all the difference. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

I long for you to be whole in Christ and for you to experience his love. And the good news is that Jesus will never turn away anyone who comes to him asking to be forgiven, like the unnamed women we looked at in this book. God will pick you back up and begin to wipe away the smudges, heal the scratches, and cut you free from all the loose strings that have kept you tripped up and bound up for years. He will do so because he cares and because God is proud of what he purchased through the blood of his son, Jesus, which is you (1 Cor. 6:19–20). Do you believe this? While you may feel scared to love this God that you just read about, would you give a relationship with him a chance?

God sees you. He loves you. Jesus came to this earth, suffered, was crucified, died, buried, and then rose again on the third day (1 Cor. 15:3–5). His death and resurrection satisfied the wrath of God against all our sins—past, present, and future. Whoever asks for forgiveness of their sins and asks Jesus to be their Lord and Savior will be saved (John 3:16; Rom. 10:9). Receive the Lord and you will be saved. By faith. For good. Forever.

Salvation is a gift found only in him and through him; it is never a result of trying harder or doing more. It is by faith alone (Eph. 2:8–10). And I believe that today is a perfect day for you to stop running and to confess and believe.

There is still time for you to join me on the figurative white couch, come before the throne of God’s grace, and worship him. For all are welcome to come and receive the sufficient and sustaining grace and forgiveness of God. And if you do decide to give God a chance and receive Jesus as your Savior, I encourage you to reach out to a Christian friend or family member or to find a place that teaches the Bible so that you can meet other brothers and sisters who love Jesus and who can help you grow in your faith.

And now as I finish my final walk-through of A Redesigned Life, my designer’s heart is finally at peace. I have written this to you because I care. Know that I am praying for you, and some of you by name.

Come and take a seat on the white couch.

Welcome home to your redesigned life.

God is waiting with his arms opened wide.