Welcome to Slice of Life Sunday -a meme dedicated to preserving the accounts of events cut out of the lives of average people just like you from all over the word.
Wikipedia defines a slice of life story as “a category for a story that portrays a “cut-out” sequence of events in a character’s life.” It has also been defined as an “episode of actual experience represented realistically and with little alteration in a dramatic, fictional, or journalistic work.” (cp. Answers.com).
The hall was packed with chattering teenagers, all hopped up on an ice cream induced sugar high. My friends and I had alternately laughed and eaten our way through the evening, enjoying the chance to be together doing something fun that cost us little. Holly's mom patiently drove a gaggle of girls to these monthly rallies. Some events were more active, like a neighborhood scavenger hunt; some were a bit more laid back, like the ice cream social that night.
But all of the events had one thing in common: at the end of the evening, someone would stand up and preach a short sermon. To be honest, the first few times I heard it, my mind wandered. But slowly, I began to pay more attention, to ponder the things that were said. Finally, in spite of the sugar buzz and the slight ice cream headache, on this particular night, something inside me shifted. What had seemed rather silly and simplistic suddenly made sense.
That evening, when the speaker asked if anyone wanted to give their life to Christ, my hand went up. After the final amen, a young lady pulled me aside to talk with me, to make sure I understood the commitment I had made. Together, we reviewed what had been taught, what I now truly understood and would base the rest of my faith life upon:
- I am a sinner - incapable of keeping God's laws.
- Sin has broken the relationship I had with God, for God is absolutely holy and cannot stand sin.
- Nothing I can do on my own will ever pay the penalty for my sins, or make me good enough to have a restored relationship with God.
- God loved me anyway, so much so that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross to pay the penalty I owed for my sins.
- By admitting to God that I am a sinner, believing in the work Jesus did on the cross to pay the penalty for those sins and asking Him to come into my life to be my Lord, I have been freed from the penalty of sin, released from the power of sin, and, one day, I will be removed from the very presence of sin.
These are the things I know and believe in, so much so that I am staking my eternal life on them, and I work to live my life here on earth in light of them.
The sixteen years of my life prior to my decision to follow Christ were not exactly wild. I was the good kid - born with an innate sense of responsibility, the least likely to rebel or cause trouble. But even so, in honestly looking at my life, I knew that night that I could never measure up to God's standards. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I needed the salvation Jesus offered.
At times, people give the impression that if you come to faith in Christ, all of your problems will disappear, and you will become healthy, wealthy and wise with minimal effort. While God longs to bless His people, we are not guaranteed health, financial security and unfailing wisdom. What we are guaranteed is a God who will not forsake us, who longs for us to become more like Christ and will use any means necessary to lead us along that path. Some lessons can be learned in the sunshine of prosperity; others need the crucible of fire to be fully refined. No matter what the circumstance, God is right there with us, ready to lead and guide us through to the other side.
In the years since then, I've had my share of both sunshine and fire lessons. While I cannot claim that God has turned me into a passionate preacher or effective evangelist, I can point to things in my life are that much, much different now than they would have been had I not accepted Christ. I am much different, in the core of who I am.
More than anything, I want to be the person Paul encouraged the Colossian believers to be, one who will...
"...walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might..."
Col 1:10-11 (NASB)
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