Broken Not Crushed living life as a statement, not an apology

I just heard a song the other day, and commented to Deb that it was the most honest song I’ve ever heard. It’s called “That I Would Be Good“, by Alanis. The lyrics are here. Every time I listen to it, I am blown away by the beauty of the gospel, the good news that reaches down and fills the need she is crying out. Every person on the planet wants to be able to put down the mask, and know that they are loved by someone who knows the real them. Yet most of us are haunted by the idea that “you wouldn’t love me if you knew the real me.” That’s the gaping wound Jesus came to dress.

Can you imagine being told, “I love you completely. Exactly as you are. You don’t have to merit it. I will always love you. I will never leave you. I will never turn you away when you call.” That is what my heart cries out for. And yet I so often try to numb it or fill that longing with something, anything, except the One who truly satisfies.

G. K. Chesterton once said, “Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God.” I saw that firsthand in Amsterdam–people pursuing the counterfeit, the impostor. We are all trying to fill that longing to be loved. And the good news, the really, really good news, is that we can be.

*correction on the Chesterton quote. I took it from an article I had read, but when I Googled it I learned that Chesterton didn’t really say it. From The American Chesterton Society:

“Variously ascribed to Chesterton, St. Francis, and St. Augustine, we have discovered that the only documented source of this quotation is the book The World, The Flesh, and Father Smith by Bruce Smith (1945) And the quote is really: “. . .the young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God.” (p. 108)”

Even though it sounds like something Chesterton would say, it is not. A good quote, nonetheless.