Don't take it for granted

These are a few reminders to myself.

1.  The local church where the Word is faithfully preached, where the members encouraged to grow in holiness and community, where the doors are open to help the city, where we are encouraged to live out Monday-Saturday what was preached on Sunday.  Perfect?  Not at all.  Striving to follow Christ and the Word?  Yes.

2. Being a mom.  It's more than homeschooling and academics.  It's more than don't work/work outside the home.  It's more than homemade cookies and milk, even though that's nice.  It's the blessing of being able to tell your child about Christ, to talk about Him and His word.  It's the privilege of waking up one morning and finding that your daughter is your sister-in-Christ who wants to have her life transformed by the gospel.  Can you take any credit for it?  Absolutely not!

3. Being a sinner saved by grace.  Craig B. has a sobering quote by Tim Keller on hell and who winds up there.

A common image of hell in the bible is that of fire. Fire disintegrates. Even in this life we can see the kind of soul degeneration that self- centeredness creates. We know how selfishness and self absorption leads to piercing bitterness, nauseating envy, paralyzing anxiety, paranoid thoughts, and the mental denials and distortions that accompany them. Now ask the question: "What if when we die we don't end, but spiritually our life extends on into eternity?" Hell, then, is the trajectory of a soul, living a self-absorbed, self-centered life, going on forever."

You could read this and say, "I know someone exactly like that." Or you could read it and say, "This is me but for the grace of God."  Either way, this is a terrifying description.

I can only ask, why did God save me?  Why did He snatch me from this hell-bound, self-absorbed path?  Was there anything in me that was worth it?  Absolutely not!  Was it freely given?  Yes, but it will cost my all.  Is it worth it?  Yes.

Were the whole realm of nature mine, 

That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.