I wear a maroon hat with the letter 'A' on it. I tell people that it stands for Austin, my name, like Alvin does on Alvin and the Chipmunks, but the more I think about it, maybe that scarlet A is one of my scarlet letters.
In high school, we were required to read the book, "The Scarlet Letter." It's a book many people have read, as it's required by a lot of schools' English classes. If you haven't read it, I'll give you a super short Cliff Notes (ha, see what I did there) version of it: Essentially, a girl is forced to where a scarlet letter 'A' on her chest as a form of punishment so everyone knows she's an adulterer.
After we read this book in class, as a project, we were told to create a letter for ourselves to wear around our own necks, in order to empathize and relate to the main character. There were lots of letter L's for lying, G's for gossip and S's for stealing. Most of the letters stood for pretty drama-free adjectives, and I, personally, rocked the letter L, myself for 'lust'. It was a really great, humbling class project, but now that I think about it, I feel like I should've worn more than one letter. I feel like I should've been wearing the whole alphabet.
Do you ever have those days when you're completely floored by just how messed up and in need of grace you are as a person? Today was one of those days for me; I felt like I deserved to wear every letter of the alphabet around my chest just to symbolize how broken I really am. It never fails; Anytime I'm feeling even a little bit self-absorbed, I do something to remind myself that I'm not as 'good' as I think I am. It's humbling.
There's something about being so messed up that you have to be completely dependent on Divine grace to cover your screwups that makes grace overwhelming sometimes. Just knowing how messed up I am (and how messed up the world is), and that there is Someone who has already paid the costs of those mistakes is enough to make me sit down and bury my hands in my face and sob like a new born baby. It's that humbling to me.
I hope it is to you too.
Anytime you have one of those days when you're really feeling the weight of your sin and it feels like every letter of the alphabet, A-Z, is strapped around your neck weighing you down, remember that you're not the one having to carry those sins. If you believe Jesus Christ is Who He said He is, then you must also believe He has already freed you from those letters around your neck. Remember on the days that you're feeling the weight of your sin, the weight of His grace is greater.
-Cliff
Cliff's Note: Grace is an ocean- sink in it.