“Sink or Swim, I’m Diving In!”

Grace Notes-column

            What we bury in the past often rises to the surface in our present depending on the choices we make. These choices offer direction to either aid us in maturing as believers in Christ or destroy us by robbing us of the power to believe God’s promise that He will always be there to give us a future bright with hope (Jeremiah 29:11-13).

           So God presents us with this decision: we can’t be beacons of hope if we are too filled with the darkness of our sinful past—the rage, lack of forgiveness, and pain harbored deep within—to stand and be the faith filled people who inspire change in the world around us, if we are afraid to face the fears that haunt us.

            The difference between people of courage and people who are heroic is what we choose to do in the midst of our fear.

            If we run and hide we are cowards or maybe smarter than people think. If we stand and confront, stand and fight, we are heroes especially if we are fighting for someone else’s life. The question is, “Are we willing to pay the price to save another person's life, even if it means losing everything, possibly your own life?”

            Let me rephrase the question. ‘Can you live with yourself and your choices if you do nothing?’

            If we lose our life for Christ, we will gain the world, if we choose to keep our life, we will lose our own souls and no one else will witness what we know about Jesus, because they will be too busy scoffing, laughing and condemning us for even trying (Matthew 10:34-42).

Knowing this I choose to dive in, sink or swim, to lose my life for Christ, even though I lose everything. I believe that Hope, which hears the will of God and obeys its commands, is hope that heals a broken spirit and restores a contrite heart.

I choose to fight fear with faith, to believe the best in each other, in God’s Word, but most of all, I will fight with the hope God has imbued me with because I know it will not disappoint.