Why I am Here.
Bri Perkins • October 22, 2020
As a daughter of the Creator (God), I exist to know Him and to love Him and to be known and loved by Him, which is in and of itself amazing! In addition to this purpose, God gives me a mission-to help others to know Him and love Him also. This still fires me up!
But why?
After doing “the same thing” for almost 16 years, how and why am I (specifically) still here? Still a Christian? Still persevering? Still interested in church, in God, in any of it?
Allow me to reintroduce myself.
Bri Perkins: Liar, pride-monger, idolater, self-servant, and people pleaser.
At least, without Jesus that is who I am, and who I would be the moment I would recant my confession of Jesus as Lord.
Now there are actually many reasons why I am here but in this post I will reveal to you one.
In Luke 7:36-50, the sinful woman threw herself at the mercy of Jesus, on her hands and knees acknowledged who she was (a sinner) before Jesus (the Son of God). She took an alabaster jar of perfume and wept, wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.
In the sight of religious men who scoffed at and berated her, Jesus told a story of two men in debt and concludes that if both debts were cancelled, the one who would be more grateful and appreciate the creditor’s action more is the one who owed more from the start.
After listing off numerous ways the sinful woman had loved and served Jesus, he tells her that her sins are forgiven and that her faith has saved her.
You know, if I had asked people who know me how they might describe me, they probably would have used different words than the ones I selected above. Some may have said, Bri Perkins: wife, mother, friend, listener, hard worker, connector, Spirit-seeker, etc.
But before all of that, I was something else. Like the sinful woman, I had an encounter with Jesus. I can see it like it was the first time I knew who he was. Like her, on the floor, desperate, longing to be loved and accepted, to have a place to belong.
And he was, the first person, the first place where I had ever felt truly loved and accepted. He showed me what God, the Father, had meant for me to know and feel all along...to be loved and known by him. He saw her and he saw me, beyond our sin and titles like “liar” and “sinful woman.” He longed to love us and to forgive us.
And so with all of that, my debt was cancelled, my name was changed, and I have gone in peace.
“Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven-for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”
Luke 7:47
Luke 7:47
Why am I here? Because I have been forgiven. I have been forgiven much. And so I am still here. Still a Christian. Still persevering. Still interested in church, in God, in all of it.