How Did You Die?

Hello All,

Hmmmm..... How did I die? Well if I remember correctly, it was a Wednesday (Funny that I hadn’t considered the coincidence of that until now) but it was a clear, cool evening. I lived on a sparsely populated street so as I strolled into the front yard….complete silence. As I looked up into the starry night, my mind ebbed and flowed with thoughts of my current situation as well as my past. Unfulfilled plans and shattered dreams antagonized and heckled me from the front row. Just then, I entered into what most call ‘A moment of clarity’. I’d seen the summation of my life thus far and also considered the bleak outlook of what was to come, and I thought; “You’d been taught way better than this.” The echoing thought of my Grandmother’s words continued to remind me of so many discussions we’d had in the past. I was 23 and had already had a daughter and been divorced after a short tumultuous marriage, but at that moment I knew…I knew better. No, this wasn’t a “promise to God” after being overcome in the painful throes of a drunken stupor, but the reality that I’d been goin my own way without Him. Not that I would expect Him to “fix” all of my mistakes, or to never allow me to make new ones, but simply that I’d go “with” Him and try my best to live like I knew better. So that was my prayer; “Each day Lord, a little closer.” From there, I started to really let “what I knew better” to become the drive and focus of my life. And that’s how I died.

Here’s the Word;

Colossians 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

That first plunge into the death is a necessary turning point for all who would walk in newness of life with Christ. For some, it happens with a Sunday School teacher, or youth pastor or even a parent early in life. The important thing being that it happens. Of course I still make mistakes and the world doesn’t treat me like I’m something special, and more often than not, I find myself again: Not at a turning point, but at a point of decision where I rely on my ‘death’ experience and die again. Even still, I can look back at that starry night in Rapid City, South Dakota and praise God for His faithfulness; He heard my plea. It truly has been a little closer each day. A little more of me continues to die away, replaced with more of Him and His will for me and those He allows me to reach.

Here’s the Word;

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease.

Such a curious thing, that as many different personalities there are, it seems there are just as many ways to die.

Think back and remember…..How did you die?

In Him,
Cros