During some recent “windshield time” (another name for a long drive), I was listening to various stations on the ol’ XM radio. I came across a song by Blake Shelton called “It’s Goodbye Time”. Like every other country song out there, it deals with a tragic break up and the hurt associated with it. However, there was a line in the song that really stuck with me. It still gets me every time I hear it. In the chorus, he sings “If being free is worth what you leave behind”…”Then it’s goodbye time”. The more I think about that statement, the more I think it is so relevant to my faith.
In this life, I think I might second guess myself for decisions I made in the past, things I could have done different, things I SHOULD have done different, regrets, fears, worries, wins and losses more than the average guy. It is so easy to live in the past, wondering what would have happened if only “I would have” or if only I “wouldn’t have”. That’s why those words really hit home. Because Romans 3:23-24 reminds us that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified FREELY by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” To steal a line from “The Lion King” when bad things happen “You gotta put your behind in the past”…”you gotta put the past behind you”. The important thing to remember is that God did. His grace has covered that debt, his Son covered that sin. I am the one that keeps bringing it up and reliving what I should leave behind.
So is being free in Christ worth what you leave behind? You bet it is. Are the roads ahead all hearts and stars? No, but there is a grace that will cover those times too. So that I can go forward knowing that being free is worth what I have left behind and knowing with confidence that it is “Goodbye Time”!
