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I lost Pirate one
summer. He cut an artery under his jaw and died. I was devastated. It was only after he had gone that I realized what a jewel
he had been. It’s funny how that happens. It takes the loss of something to make you appreciate it. But no experience
is wasted.. No pain is for nothing. In God’s Kingdom everything has purpose. He uses the good and the bad to bring His
perfect purpose in our lives. That’s what gives us hope.. That’s what enables us to go on, to move forward. To
believe that all these circumstances we face can be knit together to bring us to a higher place. Faith, hope, love. But the
greatest of these is love. God loves me .I know that He loves me. But it wasn’t always like that. Because I didn’t
know God. And I didn’t know Jesus. I turned my back on God, on religion. I thought that all of that had no relevance
for my life. What I didn’t know was that God has no use for religion either. It’s mans attempt to find God. What
God wants with me is a relationship. One that is founded in His love for me. I became a Christian when I was 30. I had no
`church` upbringing, just a self confidence, and financial independence that told me that I didn’t need any kind of
crutch, and certainly didn’t need any kind of `religion` deal to make me happy. All that stuff was for other people,
but certainly had no relevance to MY life. That was until someone close to me died suddenly…and in those moments of
realization that life for all of us could end in the blink of an eye, I realized that it was I that had the crutch... I
was the one that put my hope and self worth in my money, my job, my lifestyle.. I was the one that wanted answers about life
and death and purpose and had none... And in my searching I knew that the answers were in God, the God of the Bible, the
Creator of Heaven and Earth and in his Son, Jesus.. And so began a journey, a journey of discovering that God loves me
, and gave His Son Jesus to die on a cross so that all my sin might be paid for once and for all, and that I can stand forgiven
before God and have eternal life in Heaven. I was scared-scared I could never be `good enough`: scared I would have to
just follow a bunch of `rules`,.. scared that I would have to give up my life as it was…..and I did give it up…willingly.
I gave Him all my fears, my pain that I had suffered, my regrets and sorrow, my failures and hopelessness. And in exchange
I received unconditional love…and HOPE and a purpose for my life. And I received an ability to love people outside of
myself.
And I found that I could NEVER be good enough- but I don’t have to be…God met me right where I was at…and
because I can never be good enough before a Holy God, Jesus stood in MY place- he made the ultimate sacrifice for me.
Going to church doesn’t make me a Christian: reading my Bible doesn’t make me a Christian….although both
are a good idea. Only accepting what Jesus did for me on the cross, and asking Him to come into my life makes me a Christian.
And so today, my journey continues…has it all been plain sailing? Absolutely not! But I walk this path of life with
God as my help through the power of the Holy Spirit, and I have Hope! Hope to believe that God can make good out of all
the crazy and hard to make sense of things that happen in our lives.
I found a friend when I met Jesus, someone who knows the struggles that I face and helps me live this life with Purpose and
Significance Getting into Heaven is not about what you've done; it's about what God's done.
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