While I was spending time with the Lord this week, He asked, “Are you with me?”  My first reaction was, “Is this one of those questions like when you asked Peter if he loved you?”

I’m way more likely to overthink things than Peter.  There was no confident (over confident?), “You know I’m with you, Lord.” There was lots of rapid-fire analysis: What is the Lord really asking?  What does He mean by ‘with’?  Am I with Him in any sense?  Knowing myself as I do, how could I ever claim to be steadfastly ‘with’ the Lord?  If I say I’m with the Lord, how do I know I’m not lying to Him and myself?  On and on the yarn spun and tangled.  How could I so miserably complicate such a simple question?  Because I can be so miserably complicated.  It’s a weakness of mine.

After a few minutes of spinning my wheels, I ended up where I often end up: paralyzed by uncertainty.  So I just said, “I don’t know the answer, Lord.  Am I with you?” The Lord said, “I am with you.” It was such a beautiful, simple response.  In the Lord’s heart, none of my weaknesses, intentions, or complicating analysis mattered.  He is with me so, of course, I am with Him.  Being “with” depended entirely on Him, not on me.

Even as I write this I find myself tearing up and thinking, “Go away from me, Lord.  I’m a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8).  In this way, I’m very much like Peter.  The clear beauty of the Lord’s goodness throws my tangled mess into sharp relief.  But once again, when it comes to my sinfulness, only Jesus matters.  He is my life; He is my wisdom, righteousness, holiness, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).

There’s only one way to describe the way the Lord is: “Good news.” I pray everyone would know the good news Jesus is.