You get a rose for that!

Last night I had a little time a bit of the USC-Oregon St. game. One of the commentators of that game was Jesse Palmer. You may remember him as former quarterback of the Florida Gators and back-up for the NY Giants. Then again, you may remember him as The Bachelor. Yes, he was actually on the show "The Bachelor."

It's hard for me to take him seriously after going on that show. And it's even hard for his fellow play-by-play buddies and analysts to forget that low point in his life (not that he would necessarily see it that way...). During the first game of the season, after making a decent comment, an announcer said, "Jesse, good point. I'll give you a rose for that."

And that reminded me of the gospel. In the gospel, we are promised new life without any condemnation. We are completely forgiven and our stupid decisions will not be used against us. Our sins have been removed from us and are as far as the East is from the West. So we can literally begin each day freshly reflecting on God's mercy toward us (Lam 3:22-23). Those sins of yesterday (literally) or yesteryear need not/cannot be atoned for by myself.

My sins pretty much ruined my evening last night because I was trying to atone for them. Finally I got home, confessed, and began to feel the weights drop from my shoulders. I had a fresh day today.

Now I've never been on "The Bachelor," but I've done lots of things a lot worse. And I'm thankful that I need not fear comments like, "Wow, good point, you get a rose for that!" That's freedom. Maybe I should "forgive" Jesse for going on The Bachelor.....