Redeemed.

There's something about me that I hope you know by now: My faith is the most important thing in my life.

I don't mean it in a passe, "Oh yeah, God's my best friend, blah blah blah" kind of way like a lot of people seem to say these days.  I mean it in a real, "I can't live my life or take a breath of air without the love and real presence of Jesus Christ in me" kind of way.  And today, on Easter Sunday, I feel led to share with you what that relationship has meant to me over the past few years.

I've had skin cancer since I was 16, and I've even had lymph nodes removed.  My parents divorced before I was 9.  I've lost several people in my life, tragically.  There have been times when the storms of life left me gasping for air.  And through it all, I have praised Jesus Christ because he saved me again and again and again.  And the best thing is that my life's nowhere near over- so I'm going to get to keep praising Him. 

A lot of people have asked me how I can trust Him through everything that's happened.  And it's a very easy answer.  So many people blame God when their circumstances are just a result of their choices... for example, losing a job, getting sick, getting pregnant- these are direct results (about 99% of the time) of a choice we've made.  So when people ask me how I can trust God even though there's so much negative in the world, I look them straight in the eye and I tell them this:

Because he's suffering right beside me as I go through each trial.

Those days when your heart breaks and you can't stop crying because of the pain: his heart is breaking right beside you as you cry, knees on the floor.  When your anger gets the best of you and you can't stop thinking about how someone has wronged you: He's the quiet voice in your heart, reminding you they're just as imperfect as you are.  When life is holding a pressure hose at you and as soon as you manage to stand you're knocked over again: He's the quiet, steady hand that pulls you to your feet in the middle of the impact.

You may think that this sounds like I'm preaching.  I'm not.  I'm trying to share with you how real my relationship with Jesus Christ has become over the past several years.

It hasn't stopped my heart from breaking.  It hasn't stopped the nights when I wished I knew where the "off" button was to turn off the pressure hose so I could have a chance to breathe.  It hasn't stopped people from hurting me, from forgetting me.  It hasn't gotten me richer, prettier, more financially secure.  It didn't protect me from the painful, difficult lessons life has to teach us.

But it HAS given me a joy that the trials of life can't shake.  It HAS given me peace, so that even when the world seems to be crashing around me, I know that it will stop- or that He'll protect me as it falls.  It HAS given me the ability to love people where they are, even if they wrong me or if they hurt me- because I understand why they act the way they do.  It HAS given me a security to know that I have a heavenly father who loves me, even when I can't love myself.  I HAVE gotten, *finally* understood, what my worth is in Jesus Christ- and that my life is okay even if it only has me in it.  I CAN laugh even when life hurts.  I CAN enjoy each day as they come because I know He's in charge of my future.  I DO have security- the God who created the universe and knows every event before it comes to pass wants to be in control of my life... um, easy choice! (I let him!)

My life is constantly changing.  Each time a new trial presents itself, I have a conscious choice to make: Do I try to do this, or do I pass it to God?  The times when I have passed it to God, I have learned more about myself than any self-help book or psychologist could ever teach... and I've learned even more about how much He loves me.  It's an easy choice now, pretty much second nature.

And on a day like today, when I'm reminded of how very much Jesus Christ loves me and you because of the sacrifice he made on the cross at Calvary thousands of years ago, I can't keep quiet.  I have to shout it from the mountaintops (or from the computer screens) because, as David said in the Bible when his wife Bathsheba tried to tell him not to dance, "I will become even more undignified than this!" (2 Samuel 6:22) I'm going to share my faith with you because I won't keep it to myself.  He has redeemed both of us, just by giving his life for ours.

I hope in your heart, when you look at the Old Rugged Cross, that you see what I do, the sight that brings me to tears because of the love behind it:  Jesus Christ endured that death, the death of an innocent man in the most painful way possible, because he loves YOU.  He died for YOU.  Whether or not you believe in him, He gave his life to wipe away every single one of your sins,  past, present, or future.  

Will you let his death be in vain?  Don't let your life pass without at least asking a few questions, or reading a few passages of the Bible, to learn about who He was, and is, and is to come.  After all, He already loves you ;)

HE IS RISEN, INDEED! - Here's hoping you have the most blessed Easter of all.

Parting thought:

"Trust me, my child," he says.  "Trust me with a fuller abandon than you ever have before.  Trust me, as minute succeeds minute, every day of your life, for as long as you live.  And if you become conscious of anything hindering our relationship, do not hurt me by turning away from me.  Draw all the closer to me, allow me to hide you, to protect you, even from yourself.  Tell me your deepest cares, your every trouble.  Trust me to keep my hand upon you.  I will never leave you.  I will shape you, mold you, and protect you.  Do not fear, oh child of my love, do not fear.   I LOVE YOU." - Anonymous (but obviously, God).

Talk soon.

*Picture above taken with permission from MC Photography*