"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." - Romans 5:1 (NIV)In February of 2002, I was involved in a pretty bad car accident. It happened at a time in my life when I was smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, was an alcoholic, and spent my weekends doing anything and everything to have a good time, and to hide the loneliness and emptiness in my heart. I was at the point of just accepting that my life was what it was and that I should do whatever I had to do to get through it. I couldn't face a day without alcohol and cigarettes. On the weekends, I was very promiscuous and very drunk.
It was a Thursday evening and I was anxious to get home. As I sat at a traffic light waiting for it to turn green so I could go, a car sped toward the rear bumper of my Mazda pickup. He had switched lanes thinking that he was simply getting around slow traffic. I glanced at my rear view mirror in time to catch him coming toward me at around 60 miles an hour. As I braced myself for a violent impact, my mind blanked. He hit me. The force of the impact instantly totaled the vehicle and pushed me ahead more than 20 feet into a truck that had just pulled off due to the light having just turned green. I don't remember the whole incident, but my head flew back hitting the window behind me and then quickly forward to strike the steering wheel. When the truck finally stopped I was in a daze and reached for my neck, fearing the worse. I had received a bad case of whiplash, with my Doctor telling me that I was lucky that my injuries were no worse than they were. I began therapy and worked toward getting better.
About a month and a half after I had the accident, my Cousin invited me to her Church to see the Easter Presentation. I had seen it once before, but at a different moment in my life and it had not affected me. This time was different though. During one particular scene, after Christ's crucifixion, a single spotlight shone on the cross as He was removed and taken off stage. My heart opened up. Suddenly, it seemed as if there was no one else in the auditorium but me and God was all around me. I stared at the Cross as God spoke to my heart, saying "I did this for you. I've been watching over you through everything that has happened. I brought you here tonight because I love you." In the deep recesses of my heart, the walls of hurt crumbled as I realized that there was only one answer to my problems. I was so lonely and empty, and I knew that I would end up dying from my excesses if I didn't change. That night, Christ put His arms around me and told me something that I needed to hear so badly ... "I love you". I gave my heart, life, and existence to Him that night and have never looked back.
I look at my heart as a home. Through the many phases of my life, I had repainted the walls hundreds of times in an effort to find the right colors that would make me happy. I had redecorated with all sorts of things and built up room after room of clutter in my quest for peace and happiness. Memories, guilt, and experiences were piled up to the ceiling. One night in 2002, Christ knocked on the front door. In tears, I asked Him to please come inside and try to fix the mess that I had made. As his feet crossed the threshold and He stepped inside, my "home" was instantly transformed. What had taken me all of these years to mess up was repaired in an instant.
No matter how bad things are, there is hope. Giving your life to Christ is the ultimate answer to anything that you can possibly face. He can fix things that we think are hopeless. He can repair broken hearts, take away pain and replace it with peace, and change our existance if we will just allow him to come inside our hearts. I thank God for watching over me through everything that I have encountered. All of experiences have brought me to this point in my life ... and all of the adversity in my life gave me a greater appreciation for His love, forgiveness, and power when I finally surrendered my heart. If I look back a few years ago, I thought that my life was over. Today, I can't imagine ever feeling the way I felt and doing the things that I did in an effort to be happy.
And as I travel this road toward Heaven, my journey just gets better ...
