Grace and peace, church family. I pray this finds you well.

This week I had one of those moments that you just have to laugh about. I pulled into a drive-through car wash to get my car cleaned as I had a little extra time to spare before a church meeting. Everything was going great, until it wasn’t.

Halfway through the car wash, just at the point that my car was covered in bright purple and red foamy soap, the whole machine just shut down. Literally, dead stop. So, I waited… and waited. Nothing. After 10 long minutes I concluded that nothing else was going to happen. The car wash was broken.

I eased my way out of the stall and headed home, mind you, completely covered in bright colors of soapy foam. Let me tell you, as I drove down Lake Woodlands, soap was flying everywhere. Cars behind literally had their windshield wipers on full speed because of the excess soap flying from my car. I had to laugh because, in truth, I was unintentionally creating my very own “glory cloud” of foam. To say it was a spectacle would be an understatement.

As I drove, I found myself thinking about the message I had just preached this past Sunday and those three little words Jesus declared on the cross: “It is finished.”

The car wash broke before it could rinse me clean. But the good news of the gospel is this: When Jesus declared “It is finished,” nothing was left unfinished.

No partial cleansing. No half-washed heart. No lingering stains.

God’s grace does not get stuck mid-cycle. Through the cross, the work is complete, the payment is full and the cleansing is final.

Sometimes life leaves us feeling like we’re driving around half-covered in what we wish we could wash off. Believe me. I felt that in a very real way leaving the car wash this week. Yet, hear this: Jesus doesn’t leave us this way.

So, whatever you think still needs rinsing off, trust in the truth proclaimed from the cross. In Christ, nothing is half-finished.

Let His finished work become your fresh start.

— Mark