The Simple Life at Home

Today I'm thankful for the sacrifice that Christ made for me on the cross.

24 years ago on Easter Sunday, I finally understood what that sacrifice meant. Even though I had been attending church for several years, I had not truly understood what that meant. Church was more of a social event for me. My life outside of church went pretty much the same as it always did, with the life (and death) of Christ having no real impact on me.

Then, on a bright and sunny Easter morning in the mountains of Arizona, I got it. I realized that His sacrifice had been so tremendous and that He deserved my very best. He deserved all of me, not just that part that I had set aside for Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. I begged forgiveness and committed to live my life for Him.

The change was instantaneous, and yet has taken all these years. It's still not complete. I still find myself coming to the cross daily to lay down and be changed. I fail miserably every day and yet He never gives up on me. This process of sanctification is a long and challenging one. While we often hear stories of people who accept Christ and are instantly changed, there are those of us who struggle daily with renouncing our sinful nature.

I think I can say that the reason for that is that the closer we come to Christ, the more obvious our sins become. Yes, it's easy to see those big things that we might have been doing before we were Christians. When compared to those things, the "smaller" things (by the worlds standards) seem to be no big deal. But the closer you come to Christ, the more you realize that often those things are a bigger deal than the major "sins" the world considers a bigger deal. Pride, envy, lust, anger - these are all things that the world may make jokes about, but in reality they area bigger problem in the life of a Christian than many of the "big sins." Those big sins are usually just symptoms of these internal, heart attitudes which Christ found so offensive.

Ok, I'm getting off track. My point is that I'm so very thankful that Christ has an unending well of love and mercy for me. As I learn every day, that well is deeper and wider than I could ever imagine.