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So Redeemed Little

What is your life saying to a watching world about Jesus?

by Jill Briscoe

Over recent years, I have collected old, devotional Christian classics. The one I was reading on this particular day, The Prayer that Spans the World, was a wonderful book on the Lord’s Prayer written by Helmut Thielicke, a Lutheran pastor and theologian in mid-twentieth-century Germany. In it he mentions being “so little redeemed.”

The phrase riveted my attention. I wanted to talk to Jesus about it, so I went to Him early, before the day began. “Early” is precious time. But the older I get, the harder “early” becomes! Unfortunately, I had written in a book about prayer that, “Sleep deprivation is better than God deprivation,” so now I had to follow my own advice; I had to do without a little sleep to go to the Deep Place where nobody goes, before the Shallow Place where everyone lives got moving at the light of day. I was so glad I went!

“I have been reading an old book, Lord.”

“When you read a new book, it’s a good idea to read an old one!” He said. We were sitting on the steps of my soul by this time, and I was excited. I knew we would have a wonderful time reading from the greatest book of all, the classic of classics, the Golden Book. He had been underlining Scriptures that talked about redemption for me with a Majesty marker. After I had read these verses I murmured, “Thank You for redeeming me.”

He didn’t answer at once but pointed out a passage in Thielicke’s book; the very one that had caught my eye. The Prayer that Spans the World is a record of a series of sermons he had preached against a background of falling bombs towards the end of the Second World War. By the seventh sermon only the choir loft of his beautiful church in Stuttgart was left standing. But he didn’t give up. (That’s what makes this book so incredible.)

It made riveting reading. He talks of the human race being like a child lost in a forest calling out, “Father, are you there?” Then Thielicke writes, “God is always there. And you can call Him Father.” His wartime congregation, suffering and dying, must have hoped fervently that he was right about the Father part.

There was also a man in Germany called Nietzsche whose writings and philosophy were a great influence on both Hitler and Stalin. One day Thielicke went to talk to him about Christ redeeming the world.

Nietzsche responded, “You Christians will have to look a lot more redeemed for me, Thielicke, to believe in your redeemer!”

“What a devastating thing Nietzsche said,” I commented.

“Yes!”

“I wonder if he would have listened to Thielicke if his experience with Christians who, apparently, had not practiced what they preached, had been any different?” I mused.

Then He and I talked about the cross and what it cost Him to die in my place. Overwhelmed, I was on my knees again, asking Him to forgive me for being one of those “so little redeemed” people.

“How dare I be so little redeemed, Lord?” He didn’t answer and I cried then, not for me (which is usually why I cry), but for Jesus and what my sin caused Him to suffer. Then He left me and for the first time that morning, I looked at my watch. It was about time for the world to get up, but before I left to do my work I wrote Him a note and posted it through the prayer mailbox. It said:

So little redeemed, So little like Him, So little I’ve changed from what I have been. So little like Jesus so people can see His power and His glory Living in me.

So little redeemed, So my friends cannot see The Risen Lord Jesus Living in me. Why then should they listen When I tell them of Him? When I’m so little changed From what I have been?

So little redeemed I’m ashamed of myself, I want transformation And spiritual wealth. So I’m going to surrender, So that people can see The living Lord Jesus Living in me!

If I understand what redemption means, I will realize I am not my own, I am bought with a price—the blood of Christ! 1 Peter 1:18-19 says, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.”

Lord, are there those who would say I have stopped them from considering the gospel because I am “so little redeemed?” Forgive me. Remind me I am watched by others! Amen.

Jill Briscoe was born in Liverpool, England. She has partnered with her husband in ministry for over 60 years, written more than 40 books, and traveled on every continent teaching and encouraging ministry leaders. Jill is the founder of Just Between Us. She can be heard regularly on the worldwide media ministry called Telling the Truth. She and her husband, Stuart, live in southeast Wis.