Earlier this month I (Jason) was driving over Lake Murray dam. Usually, I am focusing on the massive structure that was built nearly 100 years ago, and not the road and the traffic around me. As I peered over the river side of the dam, where the floodgates are located, I recalled a visual image that I had read in the book, Gentle and Lowly, by Dane Ortlund. Dane speaks about how Christ followers often live with a “diminished view of the compassionate heart of Christ.” He writes:

“The sins of those who belong to God open the FLOODGATES of His heart of compassion for us. The Dam breaks. It is not our loveliness that wins His love. It is our unloveliness.”

Hmm. I always visualized my sins pushing me further away from God. So, I hesitated to come to Him in confession. In reality, I was unknowingly diminishing the work of Christ on the cross, and the compassion that was so clearly expressed for me on the day Jesus willingly died for me.

To help me begin to right size my understanding of the compassion of God’s heart, I did some research. Lake Murray holds back 7.6 billion gallons of water that make up the lake. Yes, BILLION! When the flood gates were opened in 2015 for the first time since 1969 due to the “1000-year flood” event, there were 365,000 gallons of water per minute rushing out of the dam, flooding much of the land downstream. Those figures pale in comparison to how fast and completely compassion flows from the heart of God. Unlike the damage done downstream by the water, God’s rushing

compassion towards you and me, works for our good ...especially when we fall short of His Glory.

Christ is pleased with us when we come to Him, confessing our failures. It allows Him to pour out on us what He desires to give so freely: Forgiveness.

Romans 5:20 “Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”