Day #110 in A Year of Thanks:
I’m thankful I have Jesus Christ.

My heart is heavy tonight for various reasons. However, this post will only share the most relevant one. About fifteen years ago, I went on a date with a guy at a diner. I don’t remember the exact timing, but I very clearly remember one detail. It was when I was trying to cling to my faith, and yet he was expressing atheistic views.

At first, he and I got along in everything else, but then he brought up the subject of having lost someone close to him in a tragedy. He reached a point where he had asked me, “Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?” I heard the anger in his voice and saw the pain and confusion in his eyes. Since I was so young in my faith and didn’t have any biblically sound role models to lean on for deep questions like this, I had no clue how to answer this genuinely curious man’s vital question. If I were to have that same discussion today, I could now think of several ways to answer that.

Not a single one of us is a good person. Since the fall of Adam and Eve, sin has been rampant everywhere. It has invaded every level of our lives, from business to finance, and intimacy, just to name a few. We can’t escape the darkness on this side of eternity. We have all earned a one-way ticket on the express train to hell, and satan is the ruler of this world.

Nothing we can say, think, or do of our own merit can secure us a spot in heaven. If we could earn redemption, we wouldn’t need Jesus, and life wouldn’t be this hard. We all know right from wrong, yet we have all faced the temptations in our weakest, vulnerable moments. We have all fallen from grace in at least one area of our lives. If we were good, we’d be perfect, but we’re all fallible.

It doesn’t matter how kindly I speak to people and lift them up, how gentle I am in my touch with anyone, or how much I do for others out of love for them. Yes, I want to love others like Jesus loves us, but none of these actions will define me as a good person. I’m a sinner, and without Jesus, I am chained and bound to hell. With Him, my chains are gone, and I am free. He’s my Savior, the Lord of my life, the one who paid the price for my life by taking up my eternal punishment on the cross He didn’t deserve to die on.

I know I am not the only one who sees how chaotic and dark this world has been lately. We are all waiting for “normal” to return, but we’ve reached the point of no return for normalcy. Relevant Magazine recently wrote an article about how one of Google’s consistently top trending search topics over the last five years is hope. It’s an interesting read, as it feels like a check engine light for humanity, and that check engine light is on. I’ve got a special message about that.

Jesus is the hope that we all need. He is the only one who can deliver us out of the pits of hell. He is the Truth, the Life, and the only Way. No one can get to the Father in heaven but through Him. His gift of salvation is free for us to accept until our last dying breath on this side of eternity.

I’m thankful for what He did for me on that old, rugged tree. I’m filled with joy that He has defeated death and risen from the grave. Even more so, I’m bursting at the seams with hope and anticipation of His long-awaited return for His Bride. Jesus is coming back, and much sooner than we think. Non vedo davvero l’ora.

Day 109 | Day 110 | Day 111
Year of Thanks