Finals and Salvation

Yesterday was my last final (cue the angels singing) and now I am done until June 7th when I start Summer classes. Over a month to get ready and on the road for the internship and the fall semester at Murray. So exciting. But, while I was in the shower yesterday (great place for some God-time, I mean, come on- you're completely alone, take advantage of that time!) God showed me how salvation and school are a lot alike.

When we start school in the January or August we're excited about the semester (I am at least...I'm a nerd) and all the possibilities contained within the next few months. It's a lot of fun as you meet new people, settle into a routine, and become familiar with the teachers and their expectations. But as time goes on, homework piles up, tests get increasingly harder, Spring (or Fall) break doesn't last long enough and you're as excited about school as you are when contemplating a root canal with no anesthesia. Overwhelmed with books to read, papers to write, and presentations to give, finals week comes and you're ready to be done. The end is near but freedom can't come soon enough. But as you turn in that last final, get in your car and drive off campus there is a sweet relief that overcomes the being and excitement for the future returns as your commitment to the college is complete, albeit briefly.

In the same way, we start out life with excitement, energy, and sin. Lots of sin. We settle into a routine as our natural man seeks to please himself. But as time goes on our search for fulfillment leaves us, ironically, unfilled. Life gets increasingly harder as we learn to deal with heartbreak, disappointment, let-downs, and failure. Overwhelmed with sin and finding there is nothing we can do to remove it, our excitement for life has disappeared and in its place is a longing for freedom. As God shows us more of who He is our eyes are opened to who we really are. Nothing. And then, that precious moment when we turn ourselves over to the God of the Universe, the One who made us and loves us more than we love ourselves (and holy cow- that is a large amount of love), the chains are broken as the Holy Spirit enters our hearts and eternally joins us to our Creator. True freedom as our excitement for life returns because of who we have become through the cross of Jesus where He terminated the enemy and made a way for us to become what we never could without His blood. What love.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." -2 Corinthians 5:17