One Life

     One life; one life out of billions of others. Purpose and value swallowed and devoured by the sheer insignificance of being, of smallness, a voice robbed of existence by the roar of nothing less than the same. Seemingly endless in its persistence, masses, volume, and magnanimity, the onslaught prevails … almost! Our smallness would defeat us, if it could, by default. After all, life is just a vapor.

      This is the basis for my faith, or rather my faith in Jesus. It was just one life, but from the time I was first introduced to Jesus I knew his voice. I can’t offer a definitive explanation other than even as a young boy I knew there was no other like Him. It was His voice that I knew and trusted. Now, I was surrounded, like the rest of us, with the awakenings of the promise of newness, common with youthful discovery and the assumptions of ownership. I had not yet read Ecclesiastes. The philosophies of the time sounded so good, so new, and even compatible with those of Jesus. I prided myself on knowing of His engaging the evils of establishment. I did so also. I still heard His voice with the help of my ever so carefully and newly enlightened worldview. I did some stupid things. I discovered the age of accountability. I heard his voice again. He said, very clearly this time, after I had been doing something I knew was wrong [drugs], and I remember this like it was yesterday, “You will never be the same person you were yesterday. There’s no going back.” I remember feeling like the image on the other side of the mirror looking back at who I was the day before with no way of returning to where I belonged. I felt small and alone. I wish I could say at this point that I became wise to the lies. I didn’t. I dug myself an absolutely astonishing pit.  Yet still, I could hear His voice. Incredible!

     I’m not a great climber. It took years to climb out of that hole. Now I’m looking at the mountain I want to climb. With so much time spent and an account wanting for returns, I still look through the mirror with the anticipation of being reunited with the person Jesus intended and intends still in making me. There is a price for disobedience and it lasts a lifetime. So now I’m ready to be obedient but like I said the piper is still there waiting to be paid. I can hear an objection at this point, after all am I not a new creation? Yes, I am…one with a lifetime of consequences. I’m not whining though, I feel incredibly blessed. I believe in happy endings. I’ll be just a vapor but not just. I’ll be a vapor trail … Oh! Yeah! Whatever time is left for me I want to leave a trail that leads others home, back to reality, back to Jesus.

     This is the basis for my faith. I know now that I’m just “one life.” One life out of billions. Jesus was one life. He talks to me with a still small voice. Size doesn’t matter to Him; He created the universe above us and in us. He’s more than just the natural, more than supernatural…He created both.  He’s not misled with the philosophy of the day because He’s the truth. Jesus always was and is life. He came to give me purpose, show me value, give me His voice, and transform my littleness into more than I can fathom. I may not be able to prove Him to you, but just ask Him and He’ll prove Himself in your life. He breathed it into you and sustains you even in your rebellion, and patiently waits right up to that last breath. This is the basis for my faith in Christ and in life…one life.