Come As You Are

Come out of sadness
From wherever you’ve been
Come broken-hearted
Let the rescue begin

Come find your mercy
Oh, sinner, come kneel
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can’t heal

This David Crowder song invites us to come – not to stay where we are, not to go in the opposite direction, but to come. It’s an invitation that Jesus made to those who would be his disciples: ‘Come, follow me’. It’s an invitation that Jesus made to the tired and weary, ‘Come, and I will give you rest.’  

So lay down your burdens
Lay down your shame
All who are broken
Lift up your face

Oh, wanderer, come home
You’re not too far
So lay down your hurt, lay down your heart
Come as you are

The generous invitation to ‘come’ is for everyone. No one is excluded. It’s for the sad and broken-hearted, the hurt and hopeless, the weary and sorrowing, the broken and the wanderer. We don’t have to be OK, decent or sorted-out we ‘come as we are’, with our mess and failures, with our disappointments and frustrations.

There’s hope for the hopeless
And all those who’ve strayed
Come sit at the table
Come taste the grace

There’s rest for the weary
Rest that endures
Earth has no sorrow
That heaven can’t cure

Having come, the generous invitation then is to unload our burdens – not to hide them, disguise them, deny them or try to sort them out ourselves. Having taken them off and put them down we discover acceptance, forgiveness, hope and rest. Crowder is taking Jesus at his word. I know that I can too.

So lay down your burdens
Lay down your shame
All who are broken
Lift up your face

Oh, wanderer, come home
You’re not too far
So lay down your hurt, lay down your heart
Come as you are