Today marks a milestone for me: today I have been a Christian for exactly HALF of my life!
The first half:
A lack of identity led me to believing that our culture had the answers for happiness: money, success, relationships, alcohol, drugs – live it up – party on!
The problem is – our culture lied. All the fun, all the easy relationships, all the getting what I wanted, all the money & ease of life, the feeling good… It didn’t fulfil but left me trapped, disillusioned, depressed, oppressed by evil & with no desire to live.
The Bible says it best:
For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.
1 John 2:16 (NLT)
It sure offers a *craving* for those things. But it can’t offer freedom & life. Only Jesus can do that…
† ——————————————————————————— †
The Way to here was lined with pain and hardship.
The Truth of the world I lived in (and my own evil nature) was spiritual.
The Life I thought I had was death, but I was offered something different.
† ——————————————————————————— †
The second half:
Instantly a new person, with different desires, I no longer wanted to do bad, I wanted to please this God that had set me free. He did what no amount of meditations, incantations, proclamations or medications could – He changed my very heart & desires(!!). I now wanted to help people even if they hated me – a *very* new and surreal experience for someone like me!
No longer a result of random chance nor a product of my painful past, my new identity was that of a son, not ‘just’ of mortal flesh, but of the Father of Creation. So thoroughly cleansed that I could be made one with the Holy God! My soul could rest.
While I continually made mistakes and had no idea about what to do or say, I was often amazed at the words that just came, (later I would see those very words for the first time in the Bible) and I saw a number of other people change in the same way I had.
The most memorable? The woman who would become my wife, (definitely my better half!), to discover & journey with me and this new reality. At times it has seemed like wave of wave of hardship and pain, at times both making regular and monumental mistakes, but having something far deeper than ourselves or each other to fall back on.
We have seen many miracles, in ourselves, each other and of course our 6 biggest miracles. Raised in a secluded lifestyle with little finances or planning or hope for a secure anything (according to culture), yet they are for the most part, well adjusted, kind, thoughtful, hard working and just fun to be around humans.
I could not be more thankful for the change that happened – my prayer is that you would experience the One who was there all along, yet I only noticed for the first time in the ‘middle’.
He is there for you too.
#thankYouJesus #newlife
The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
John 10:10 (NLT)
Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.
John 3:6 (NLT)