My Destiny, Part Three: Rebirth

...until out of the corner of my eye I see- a light.  Just a tiny hole poking through the darkness at first.  But within mere moments I not only see, but am enveloped completely by it, overwhelmed by it.  There is not even the smallest trace of darkness anymore.  It has vanished so quickly that for a moment I wonder if it was even here.  And then it is but a fading memory...

A breeze passes over me, and suddenly I feel lifted with new strength.  It is not my own, no mistaking that.  My body still feels as though it is made of sand, inconsistant with no ability to hold structure on it's own.  Yet this strength holds me together, lifting me to my feet.  New found freedom washes over me.  Love infuses me.  Life takes hold of me.  Life... 

It is then that I notice something laying at my feet.  I look down and find a shell where only minutes ago I lay broken.  It looks like me...  Or, what was me.  The twisted form of myself that had become gnarled from disease.  Is it any wonder I could even move, I ask myself?  Or were my previous movements just an illusion from the mind of a paralyzed man?  What exactly is happening to me?

It is then that I see a lamb, as though it had been slain, yet living in all might and power.  It is the very God I had cried out to, the very God whom seemed so very far away, standing not above me, but beside me, holding me up.  It is then I realize that this new strength is His.  He has taken the darkness from me.  I do not have to ask, for the answer is already there- it was He who paid the price for my life.  He had ransomed me with His very blood.  Then in His power, He took my old self, that broken blackened creature of the night that I was, and changed it. 

I am a new creation.

This is my destiny.

I have done many wrongs, hurt God and others, in a life that was a suicide mission.  But no more.  Now God has set me on a new path; a path of peace though we are in a war, a path of love though we are surrounded by hate, a path of hope despite being surrounded by hopelessness.  This is the great adventure.   I do not know what lies ahead of my feet.  I am so blinded by the Light that it is all I can see- but it is that the Light, the Light of Christ, that I shall follow- no matter where it leads. 

I am redeemed. 

I am restored.

I am reborn.

The Lord Jesus Christ has came to my aid.  The Son of God has taken my place in judgement where I should have stood.  He saw my frailty, my weakness, my disease.  When all others cringed from me, when all others ran from me, when there was no hope in any other name under Heaven- he ran to me, and purchased the rights to my soul with His very blood.  He resurrected my dead soul just as He was resurrected from the grave.  He is the Light that I will follow until the end of eternity- and beyond.

This has been my story, from beginning to end.  Sometimes I forget myself, and I look back for that shell of a creature I once was.  But I never can see it.  Oh yes, sometimes my eyes do start to adjust to the darkness again.  But they never fully adjust, and I stumble and fall to my knees where the Lamb lifts me up and surrounds me with His love and His light again. 

Yes, this has been my story.  But my question to you is, is it not your story too?  For my brothers and sisters in Christ, do you remember the time when He came to your rescue?  Or have you forgotten the joy His love brings?  Stop looking back at your past.  Turn yourself back around, focus only on Him.  Your past is dead and gone, a distant memory cast into the sea of forgetfulness, cast as far from you as the east is from the west.  It is forgotten by God...  Why don't you forget it too?

As for those of you who may read this, who are still in that miry pit...  There is only one way out my friend.  There is only one way to freedom.  You can remain in that pit, broken, twisted, dying...  But there is another destiny that awaits.  A destiny not of regret, not of hopelessness, not of hate.  It is a destiny of peace, love, hope, redemption... 

Your adventure awaits...

Well?  What are you waiting for?