I’ve been pondering lately the subject of my own salvation.

I know, I know, you probably came to my blog all excited, hoping to find an update on the slug situation, or to see if we had had any more Barbie mishaps or maybe you REALLY wanted to know some news about boogers, so I apologize if this is a little deeper than what you were expecting so bear with me.

Since I have no camera, it sort of puts a damper on the blogging, and since I have no television, I have nothing better to do but think deep thoughts, read, and spend quality time with my children, not necessarily in that order.

I was saved at age 14 at church camp. Up until that point I had lived a pretty innocent life, compared to some other Middle-School-aged girls. I never drank alcohol, never snuck out of the house or smoked cigarettes or anything wild and crazy like that. I spent most of my time at home, living a pretty harmless and boring existence.

So I don’t have a dramatic salvation story. I used to wish for one of those…..an attention-grabbing, tear-jerking salvation story…you know the type. But though that isn’t my story, the pit I was in was just as deep and dark and nasty, though I may not have realized it at the time; I did however know depression and despair and hopelessness that I thought was the normal way of life for me as a middle school misfit.

But somehow….at church camp…..Jesus became real to me and I realized that I had never, up until that point, believed. I asked Jesus into my heart and at that point all my sins, past and present and future, were washed away.

I recently pondered where I would have been had I not been saved, and I had a daydream (or vision?) of myself living a totally different life from the life I live now; its not fancy but I know that I know that I KNOW that the Lord has had His hand upon me, has made my paths straight, and I have had the protection and deliverance from evil that comes from being sealed with the Holy Spirit.

In my daydream, the details were so vivid and so realistic that I saw myself living a life totally driven by my need for acceptance and attention and the need to be ’needed’…the same motives that drive a lot of people into making some really harmful and unwise choices that have life-long consequences for everyone around them for generations to come, not to mention ending with an eternity burning in hell forever ….. I won’t go into the details of what I ‘saw.’ I just know, in my heart, that the Lord saved me from what might have been had my paths not been made straighter. It made me so thankful that God was gracious to me and made me (ME! a middle school loser!) an HEIR though I had absolutely nothing to offer but my bad hair, brace face, and last-chair flute in the Moore Middle School band.

It occurred to me that a lot of people think they don’t need a Savior, because they live a life that is pretty much harmless and boring. They haven’t committed the quote “big” sins…haven’t killed anyone, haven’t robbed a bank, etc.

(You know that’s the answer a lot of people give when you ask if they’re going to Heaven when they die…..”Yes, because I haven’t killed anyone. I’ve also been kind to animals.” And they don’t realize that couldn’t possibly be enough.)

I just wonder if those people who think their past is unblemished for the most part…..have they considered their future? Have they considered that at some point, though they may never rob a bank or kill anyone, that they might be in a position of loneliness and despair or desperation that might lead them to make some really harmful and unwise choices that have life-long consequences for everyone around them for generations to come (not to mention the eternity in hell)?

Because you know…..Jesus will save you, not just from your past, but from your future, too. He can make your paths straight and protect you from the evil one here on earth, and as a bonus, give you an eternal home in Heaven when you die.

Just something to ponder…

(Need to know how to make peace with God for yourself? Click here.)