An unfair exchange

  How many times have I told my children that "life's not fair, and we should be thankful for that!" But sometimes it feels like we're on the wrong side of that equation, the death of a family member, income loss, a miscarriage - yesterday in the ER my heart wept with a young mother-to-be.  She started bleeding the night before - just lightly spotting.  She wanted to check on the baby.  I placed the ultrasound on her, confident that everything would be ok. I searched for a heartbeat.  I searched again.  I should be able to see this easily at this stage.  I gently told her that I couldn't find a heartbeat but that I wasn't the expert.  I was sending her for a formal ultrasound.  Tears streamed down her face for the second time as she succumbed to fears.  This was her second pregnancy  - the first lost at 9 weeks (the same measurement of gestation that I got on ultrasound).  Why?  With so many girls/women getting pregnant and carrying to term who "don't deserve it". Who could care less, strung up on drugs, wrapped up in unhealthy lifestyles, and here a young couple is struggling to hold back the grief of unspoken fears.  
     Yet, I am thankful that life is not fair.  Jesus got the unfair end of a Divine exchange.  He carried the wrath of God and torment of my sin, and I got in exchange: life everlasting, hope, righteousness.  He suffered, I was redeemed.  And the exchange continues to go on as He promises and fulfills giving beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning.  He has taken on and continues to take on the heart break of a broken world that His blood might cover a multitude of sins, might lift people out of the despair and the crushing weight of sin and its consequences and bring us into the joy of fellowship with the glorious Trinity.  As the preacher today said: "We have been given something greater than the angels who revel in His presence and glory, an opportunity to peer behind the veil with eyes of faith.  Angels look on in wonder when we worship in the Valley of the Shadow."
  Faith isn't just for Sunday morning worship but to glimpse the glory when walking in the horror or struggle of the day to day. To believe that we can really come just as we are in our struggle, unbelief, anger, fears, joys, exhilarations, hopes and realize that no matter where we are when we come, we bring nothing to the table.  He wants us raw and real. He just wants us to come, to enter into the unfair exchange in which he takes all of our mess and our perceptions of "having it together" and gives us joy inexplicable and FULL of GLORY.


Just as I Am

Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me
And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee
O Lamb of God, I come! I come

Just as I am, though tossed about
With many a conflict, many a doubt
Fighting and fears within without
O Lamb of God, I come, I come

Just as I am, and waiting not
to rid my soul of one dark blot
to thee whose blood can cleanse each spot
O Lamb of God, I come, I come

Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind
Sight, riches, healing of the mind
Yea, all I need, in Thee to find
O Lamb of God, I come, I come!


Just as I am, Thou wilt receive
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve
Because Thy promise I believe
O Lamb of God, I come, I come

Because Thy promise I believe
O Lamb of God, I come, I come

Story Behind the Hymn

A beautiful rendition
Acapella
There's a newer tune/rendition that we used to sing at Christ Community in Brazil, IN but I can't find it.  Can anyone out there find it for me?