The AS-IS Department

Have you ever wondered what "as-is" even means? Sometimes I see tags with this on the label, and I look at the item, which looks perfectly fine, and wonder what someone saw wrong with it. It's already in a thrift store, right?

I used to think that God loved us as we were, but secretly, deep down, wanted us to be different. That made me less than happy with myself. "Hey, if God's not happy with me, how can I be happy with me?" But then I began to notice grace in my life, to notice how God had given me so much when I deserved so little. I got incredible gifts that no one but God could have known I wanted, or needed, and I began to recognize the power of grace in my life, the grace that allows me to keep on living, even when living is so difficult sometimes.

I know single mothers who became pregnant in their teens and early twenties. I see how hard it is for them to survive each day, and I see how hard my own life was during those same times. I thank God for not giving me children, even though I ache in my singleness sometimes. I thank God for knowing me well enough to know I could not handle that in the darkest places in my life, and I care for my friends' children with that in mind. God takes me as-is, just as I am, without expectation, gives me what I need, and lets me live.