My church has started the Daniel Plan study which is a 6 week journey to a healthier life. The starting point for the study is an understanding that Jesus accepts us right where we are. No matter what our weight, no matter how unhealthy our habits, no matter what we’ve done in the past, Jesus loves us.  This is the truth and this truth should liberate us. Jesus said it himself, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”  However, so many of us seem to believe this only in theory but don’t actualize it in our own life.  Somehow we think Jesus accepts others but the dark secrets we hold in our own souls are just too bad.  We condemn ourselves and think Jesus must condemn us too.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  If we dig into the Gospels, the story of Jesus’s ministry, we see him loving the outcasts and marginalized over and over.  He treated them just like regular people. He struck up a conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well who was ostracized by her community. He called up to Zacheus who was watching him from a sycamore tree and basically invited himself for dinner.  Zacheus was a hated tax collector. Jesus did the outrageous and the socially incorrect all the time.  He wasn’t even afraid to touch lepers.  So why do we think he would not do the same for us today?

I believe the root of the problem is unforgiveness.  Not unforgiveness of others, but unforgiveness of ourselves.  Sometimes the most difficult person to forgive is yourself.  The negative voices that reverberate in our head can be overwhelming at times. They say things like, “If people really knew you, they would think you were a bad person.”  “You say you are a believer, but why do you keep making the same mistakes over and over?”  “You’re just a failure; Jesus doesn’t really love you.”  We hang onto shame and begin to believe these lies.  We are unable to embrace the magnitude of Jesus’s love for us so we are bound in the chains of guilt.

So why is embracing acceptance so important at the starting point of the Daniel Plan? Because change just doesn’t happen in a hopeless situation. Love and acceptance liberate us to move forward. This is why a supportive community is so essential.  When we are accepted as we are, we develop trust. Trust leads to open honesty and vulnerability within our group.  We are then able to accept encouragement and accountability on our journey to a healthier life. Change is possible when we see our life though the eyes of God as precious and unique.

I see this concept played out every day as a physician.  The doctor/patient relationship is based on trust: trust in the physician’s knowledge and abilities but also trust that the patient is willing to listen and follow through with a treatment plan.  This compact of trust is sealed when the patient feels care and acceptance by their physician right where they are.  They may be a total mess physically and emotionally but if they sense that they are valued, not judged, they will be much more likely to move forward in a direction toward better health and well-being.  The converse is also true. If the patient perceives that the physician could care less about them and sees them as a hopeless case then they will see themselves as hopeless. They will simply give up and not see change as possible or worth trying. 

The doctor/patient relationship is analogous to the relationship between those people who make up “the Body of Christ”, the church.  Too many times newcomers are greeted with judgement and not love.  No wonder we often see more people leaving from the back door than are coming in our front doors.  We all enter the sanctuary of God in need.  Some of our needs are obvious but most are hidden.  Only in a community built on trust are we able to be open, honest and allow vulnerability.  When we are accepted by the church just as we are, then change is possible.  When we fall down and fail as we all will, in the accepting church, there will be many there to pick us back up and move forward again.

When the church is accepting and loving then people see Jesus through us. We are witnesses of the Truth in action and we are set free.  Free to be all that God imagined us to be.  However, as Lysa Terkeurst wrote in her book, “Unglued”, we move forward in “imperfect progress,” often two steps forward and one step back.   But that’s ok because we are loved right where we are. Believe it!