Success. Failure. Redemption!

Does God ever tire of cleaning up Satan's messes?  I've been pondering that question for a few weeks now.  Personally I have 4 littles that go around the house daily, and I clean up all their messes.  As soon as I get one cleaned up, they've made another.  I could say I love cleaning it up.  But I would be lying.  I don't.  I wonder if God ever feels the same way?  Satan tempts people into getting in trouble, and God always goes and tries to clean it up.  I wonder if there will ever be a day, when He says, enough is enough.

Yesterday I got the blessed opportunity to meet Marion Jones.  My husband who is a runner, was very excited!  I was listening as he was telling me all these great accomplishments she had done.  For several weeks he talked and I listened.  But nothing prepared me for meeting this great lady.  She was once coined the "fastest woman on earth".  She won 5 medals at the Olympics, blowing away all the competition.  She was on the covers of magazine after magazine.  Had sponsorships from all over the globe.  Then one day, she just gave it all up.

I watched as she spoke of that day and her voice cracked, while tears poured down her face.  One mistake.  One bad decision.  Bad company corrupts good character.  And then it was over.  Everything she had worked her whole life for.  Gone in one bad decision. 

I make mistakes.  Who doesn't?  I made one just recently, that almost cost me everything, that I hold dear.  Which is why I keep asking myself if God ever tires of cleaning up Satan's messes.  So I could relate.  Maybe not to her extreme, but I could relate.  She told us about telling her kids, "if you ever make a mistake to accept the consequences and move on".  But how could she tell her children that, when she was holding in a lie so great, it could affect everything you have.  So she came clean.  She gave up almost $1 Million dollars in prize winnings.  She gave up 5 Olympic medals.  And she went to prison.  Yes prison. 

She cried while she talked about her 47 days in solitary confinement.  No amount of money, no amount of fame, no amount of anything, could get her out.  She had a 5 year old son and a baby at home.  I can't even imagine how much she would've missed them.  She had no rights.  Nothing.  She didn't even have control of when the lights would go on and off.  She was broken.  Broken to the core.  But she did have one thing.  The one and only thing that kept her going.  Her faith.  She read the Bible daily.  God was her only comfort.  She had no babies to cuddle.  No husband to wrap his arms around her.  No Mom to say "its OK".  She had nothing.  And that's when she went seeking, and found out that God had never left her. 

He accepts the broken.  There is nothing you could ever do that I can't forgive He would whisper in her ear.  And I guess that's where she had me.  I was in awe.  This lady spoke about her mistakes she made.  NOT her accomplishments.  Even though her accomplishments were made drug free, that one mistake is what she spoke about.  Screwing up. 

Success.  Failure.  Redemption.  She is a woman I will forever look up to.  She did what she told her children to do.  What great character.  A moral lady.  And I loved her.

She fell in love with Yohanna.  She played with her and was in shock at Yohanna's state coming into the orphanage.  Marion had grown up without a dad.  She had been abandoned by him when she was two.  Yohanna and her had an immediate connection.  I watched her stroke her back with such love. We talked about "Yohanna's Hope" and our wish to vanquish malnutrition.  She was more than willing to help.  What an inspiration she is.  Now that is who children should look up to.  Not only someone who is a huge success, but someone when they fail, will own up to it, no matter the consequences.  6 months in prison she spent.  Wow.  Olympic Medalist.  Inmate.  WNBA point guard.  What a life.

I wonder if God ever tires of cleaning up Satan's messes?  Or maybe, in the midst of the mess is when we seek HIM out the most.  And it was all apart of HIS plan for our life.  For we are never closer to God when we have tears pouring down our face, on our knees, begging HIM...