For all the screw-ups

I'm sure you're there's many of you lurking everywhere, hiding behind a huge letter plastered on your chest, whatever letter it is that represents your past, your big mistake, your ultimate screw-up of all time...
And I'm here to tell you that it is time to take that letter off, give whoever put it on you the bird, and walk with your head high.
Life is too short for shame.
Too short for guilt.
Too short to beat yourself over a screw-up.
Trust me, I know you and I know how big a screw-up can really be...
brothers and sisters...
for I am the biggest screw-up I have ever met.
BUT, guess what? I'm OKAY with being a screw-up, okay with having flaws, a past, a big mistake in my rear view mirror.
If you decided not to look in your rear view mirror for one whole day, what would happen do you think?
You'd get into the other lane on the freeway and crash into another car...
you wouldn't be able to predict other things coming.
You would drive aimlessly and blindly.
I've always heard to leave the past in the past and not look back.
My friends, it's okay to look back at where you've been to help you look to where you are headed.
In fact, it's almost necessary. I want to be able to look in the rear view mirror of my life and see where I've been, see things for what they were and be warned of what to look out for as I keep driving.
If it helps, and it helped me, take a drive alone, maybe down a road you've never been before...roll down your windows, stick your head out as far as you can and scream at the top of your lungs,
"I'M A SCREW-UP! I MADE A MISTAKE! I HAVE A PAST! SUCK IT WORLD!"
Sounds immature right? Sounds crazy right? Who cares! Get crazy, get immature once in awhile. Stop looking over your shoulder, trying to act grown up all the time and perfect because people are waiting for you to slip up again.
Act like a child, let your hair down, maybe even dance with rejoice.
You are not alone, screw-up. We all are such a thing...yet only a few of us are human enough to say we are undeserving of grace, mercy, and we don't have it all together.
If you can admit that you're no good, that without Jesus you'd be a filthy piece of crap, that without grace you'd be burning and rotting in hell forever, that without the redeeming blood of Christ you would be the worst of the worst, low-down, dirty, worthless, useless, ...SCREW-UP, you've caught the idea of salvation.
Most people in the church would read that and say...What? You want me to believe I can't do anything?
Well church, that's just what I said.
Without Jesus, you are nothing.
If your church wants to try to win souls by acting like you're not a sinner and you haven't lied, cheated, and made a mess of your life before Jesus came and messed ya up even more...
good luck, but no beggar on the street wants a perfect messenger, they want someone just as dirty as them.
So take that letter off your chest, raise it like a flag to the heavens, and dance a little.