Lora Parsons
The Ashland Beacon
Coupons, discount codes, offers for free merchandise…all are the work of stretching the mighty dollar just a little bit further in order to buy more, save more, spend big without spending big! As much as anyone else, I love a code for free shipping when placing an online order. I don’t want to pay “something” and receive “nothing.” I want product for the money I put out into the world, not just the service of delivery. I want to take what I’m giving out and turn it into something useful, something I can put my hands on. I’d rather spend a few more dollars to get to the free shipping threshold and get an even half-way useful item in my hands than to just get the items I need and have to pay shipping. Our financial system has us programmed to give AND to receive. When I give money, it is supposed to get changed into something else. It should be--just one word--REDEEMED.
When I stop and think about this word, I have to look at the root word in the middle of the prefix and suffix that have been added to the front and back end of it (remember 1st-grade word skills?) This word breaks down into three parts: the prefix, re-; the root word, deem; and the suffix, -ed. To deem something means to label it, right? To give something an identity, to determine it to be for a particular purpose. If I deem the notebook lying here to the right of me to be my research notebook, then I’ve set it apart for the purpose of taking notes in it when preparing for an article that I might be writing or a lesson I might be looking to teach at school. I’ve determined it to be used for that particular reason. Adding the “re-” to the beginning of that word doesn’t exactly mean what the fullness of the word truly means, though. If the meaning of that prefix means “again” as we were taught in elementary school, then to re-deem something should mean to simply name it again or to determine it to be set apart for something else. And, I can do that. I can decide that this notebook is now going to be used for drawing sketches in, but that doesn’t mean I can undo the parts that have already been used for research. It’s now a notebook with multiple purposes. I can’t redeem things in the same sense that we use that word in the church. When we use it in that context, we talk about Jesus redeeming us, Him being our redemption. His death on the cross made it possible for the choices that I used to make to be changed into something else. He can take the old person that I used to be and turn me into someone with a different identity, a different purpose for living. He takes the research notebook that was my life and turns it into a sketchpad for His use. He re-names me, re-determines my purpose, re-deems me to be set aside for something else.
And, as beautiful as that is, He also goes one step further. In our earth-bound way of thinking, we can only relate to what we have the ability to experience. I can understand using one notebook for two different purposes. But, the Father’s love for us is such that He doesn’t just stop there with what we can relate to through our physical experience and our physical world. He always goes beyond that because He isn’t bound by time, space, or limited knowledge. When He redeems, He goes further than turning us over to a new page. He doesn’t just cross out “Research” on the front and rewrite in red sharpie “Sketchbook.” Somehow, in His love and mercy for us, He takes the very things we used to be and allows us an opportunity to use those in new ways for His greater purposes. He literally transforms our physical experiences into moments that we can use to share Him.
So often, we hear quips like: “From my test to His testimony” or “From my story to His glory.” Those are cute little plays on words that try to allow us to wrap our minds around the deeper transformation that happens when we allow God to take control of our lives. He transforms what was our bad decisions and our shortcomings into moments that we can share Him with others. And, that’s all possible because he doesn’t just turn the page of our book; he turned the wage of our heart. There was a cost involved in our transformation, our re-deem-ing: Jesus. When we ask Him to rule in our life, He doesn’t just turn the pages that we’ve lived. He changes the pages themselves. He allows the mom who’s struggled with addiction to use her experience and new life to share Jesus’ chain-breaking power with others who struggle similarly. He takes the money-focused young businessman whose life was about worldly possessions to use his prowess to stabilize struggling families and support job skills education through his local church body. Jesus allows the very things that used to be our old identity to be part of our new identity in Him. He’s had us “deemed” for His purposes all along. We’ve always had an identity given to us by Him. We just have to recognize our need for Him to re-deem who we are, to re-name us, so that we can get in line with the bigger picture He has for our life. If we’ll give Him all of who we are, He’ll take all those parts of us, transform them into a plan for growing His kingdom, and allow us to be a part of redeeming others. He can use the old broken parts of me to help restore the old broken parts of others through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Through Him, we are Re-named. Re-purposed. Re-deemed.