This is Salvation

Well, there are some days that just remind you of what your place truly is.  Sometimes we think we have things going and we got it all together, then out of nowhere, your true idiocy leaps out and slaps you in the face.  It’s not like you don’t really know that it is there.  You just spend a lot of time trying to convince yourself and others that it isn’t.  But, I guess you can only keep up that charade so long before your true self goes on full display for all to see.

We all like to keep up a front that we are competent, intelligent, trustworthy people that can be depended upon.  This is the public facade we don.  On the inside though, we know who we are, even if we spend a lot of time denying it.  Or, maybe we don’t.  Maybe we have invested so much into the façade that we actually begin to believe it.  We begin to see ourselves as perfect and infallible.  We begin to believe that we are important, even more so than others. 

Eventually this imaginary self grows and takes over, drives you.  This pretend world you create becomes all consuming.  You just ignore and block out anything else.  Your interests are only of yourself and maintaining that image.  Others become of little importance.  You have no idea that you are belittling and hurting others.  You use people for your own personal gain; lost in a world of fantasy you created.

Then one day the cracks begin to show.  You overhear some people talking about you in a negative way.  It hurts you, but you just shake it off for the moment and move on, but it sticks with you.  Something happened though.  The fantasy is broken.  You start to notice how people are treating you and that you don’t have any real friends.  People don’t like who you are.  You begin to examine your life.  Then it happens.

A crises occurs of your own making.  There is no mistaking or denying that your own actions have brought it about.  People circle in like vultures to tear and rip at you.  Everything you have created in your mind crumbles into tiny little pieces around you.  You are there, broken, exposed, alone.  You have no one to turn to, nowhere to go.  It’s the end of your world as you knew it.

At this point, you are left with no options.  You are at the end of your rope, broken.  All these years you were so on top, you never needed anyone, especially God.  Now, God is all you have left.  You are not even sure He exists, but you have nowhere else to turn.  In desperation you cry out, God, help me! 

Suddenly a peace envelops you.  You suddenly recognize all of the lies you told, all of the people you hurt.  You begin to tell God about all those wrong things you have done, all of those false ideas you had, all the people you have hurt.  Your heart is open and spilling out all the things you have held in secret for so long, all those things that false facade kept hidden.  Something has happened and you’re not sure what it is, but you know it was God.

You know this person who you know is a believer in God, a Christian.  You find yourself calling this person, asking them what happened.  They explain to you the God came down to earth in the form of a man, born of a virgin, who lived a perfect life and did many miracles.  They tell you that this perfect god in human flesh was beaten and crucified, killed in your stead, taking the place in the death you so richly deserve.  They continue that on the third day, this Jesus rose again from the grave defeating death, and then rose again to heaven to be at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us always.  Something inside of you tells you that this is true, and you believe it.  The old broken you, is now new again, and real.

It is only the beginning of a long journey of redemption, a new life learning new truths that transform your life from the fake and phony person only concerned with themselves to a new creature submitted to God who puts the welfare of others above their own.  This is salvation.