I greatly enjoy spending time at Angola. The fellowship, prayer and praise and worship are always great. But at a real personal level I am lifted up because I come away with a sense of thanksgiving. I get a new perspective on just how blessed I am. I’m not spending the rest of my life in prison. Pretty much any little wrinkles in my life seem pretty smooth when compared to that life story.
But there is more to it than that. Most of these guys are not satisfied with their life story. Some are middle aged guys who have been in prison since they were teens and will die there. That would seem to be a life story written and completed. Yet these men recognize that with Jesus we are new men with new beginnings and a new story.
Some of us don’t get the full benefit of salvation because we view it as simply assurance of heaven one day and don’t learn that with Jesus comes a new life story now. Before we get too far along in life we settle into a story of our lives. We have parents we’ve come from, education we’ve had or haven’t had. We have chosen life partners, maybe more than once. Before we know it we have children and our lives are poured into them. We fall into patterns and become resigned to a life, often less than we had once dreamed.
With Jesus comes new dreams and new possibilities, not just for eternity but for now. We don’t have to limit the meaning of our lives or the potential of our existence on earth. The new story we have in Jesus may not be the same as the childhood dreams we had of life; it’s probably better. As kids we image based on what we know and see. With Jesus we get new sight and our lives have new possibility.
You’re not sitting in a prison with limited options. But even if you were, Jesus gives you new opportunities and new possibilities. Why not spend some time considering the life story you’ve settle on? Then allow Jesus to begin to unveil the new story He intends for you.
Your life is a new story with new possibilities, potentials and blessings.
Live it.
Nick
Be the first to reply