Originally written for: Easter Sunday 2016
Last post I shared about my baptism on Easter Sunday. Today I would like to share the testimony that was published that morning:
It’s humbling to recognize that even when my eyes were blind and my heart unaware, the Lord and His abounding love and mercies were still near. Looking back over my life, I see this even in the early years: an incredibly loving family, growing up going to church, a roommate in college who knew and loved Jesus and a series of colleges that led me to Malone University.
Despite being exposed to the Word of God, I did not fully understand what it meant to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Even though I recited the words to accept Christ, I mistakenly assumed church attendance and being a good person was a pathway to heaven. My heart had not yet been changed.
It wasn’t until my college years and my time at Malone University—a move that was unmistakably led by the Holy Spirit—that I finally asked Jesus into my heart. On a mission trip with the basketball team to Jamaica, I was challenged to ask myself if I had really made Him Lord of my life.
I began to understand that no amount of good character or behavior could save me. I am a sinner and always will be. But because God sent His Son to die on the cross, I could be saved by grace! I finally understood no amount of my own doing could save me—Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. I remember asking Him into my heart again and again on that trip and have been challenged ever since to “live a life worthy of the calling I have received” (Eph. 4:1).
Now as a wife, mother and coach, I am challenged daily to impact this world for Christ. I pray that people will see a light inside of me amidst the darkness of this sinful world. Despite my efforts to manage life on my own, I am constantly reminded of my need for God’s grace, both in the mundane parts of daily life, as well as the higher peaks and lower valleys.
Most recently, I have been challenged to put my trust in the Lord after being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. I am reminded that it is nothing I have done but rather as Jesus tells His disciples in John 9 after he heals a man born blind, “…this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in [me].” I have learned that being a child of God does not guarantee happiness, wealth or an easy life; in fact, it guarantees suffering and a constant battle against my fallen nature. Yet in all of this, I have the hope of Christ and His ultimate return.
I am thankful for the day He opened my blind eyes and look forward to the day He will call me home. In the space between, I pray to do the will of God over my own—to be an obedient disciple and loving sister in Christ: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). What a precious and indescribable gift from the Maker of the heavens and the earth.