Why I Choose Jesus

I choose you not just for raising Lazarus from the dead but for crying when he died.

I choose you not just for sending the rich man away but for leaving the door open for another chance.

I choose you not just for feeding the 5,000 but for having compassion on their needs.

I choose you not just for welcoming children but for once being a child yourself.

I choose you not just for speaking to and forgiving the woman at the well but for valuing the lives, work, and witness of women.

I choose you not just for calling Zacchaeus down from the tree but for seeing him in the tree in the first place.

I choose you not just for standing against hypocrisy and legalism but for eating with, communing with, laughing with, and valuing the outcast and those who believed they were unlovable.

I choose you not just for dying a cruel death but for living into, though sometimes struggling with, your call.

I choose you not just for teaching us to pray but for praying for us through agonizing tears.

I choose you not just for being fully God and fully human but for living your humanity in the context of community.

I choose you not just for speaking straightforward truth but for leaving us with story, parable, and thoughts that are sometimes hard to understand.

I choose you not just for breaking bread and drinking wine but for cursing the fig tree when you were hungry and it did not have fruit for you to eat.

I choose you not just for words but for silence.

I choose you not just for the sacrifice of your blood but for the breath of your creation.

I choose you not just for your death but for your life.

I choose you not just for eternity but for right now.

Jesus, I choose you not for judgment but for redemption.

I choose you not for showing up but for being all-present.

I choose you not for comfortable assurance but for hope.

Jesus, I choose you not for condemnation but for love.

I choose you not for condemnation but for love.