Saturday, March 12, 2011

Forget Him Not Friday: Meeting God

Okay, so it is Saturday...I tried to do this yesterday, but with a little one near throwing up and feverish, not much was accomplished yesterday! Anyway, here it goes:

December of 1987 was the most life-changing month of my existence. I was a Freshmen on campus, just trying to survive. My favorite song and the motto of my college years was going to be Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna have Fun." Yep, that was me...no depth there. My dad told me I was going to school & that was that. So, there I was, almost at the end of my first semester - and having a ball. I hadn't roomed with my best friend on purpose because she was a C.H.R.I.S.T.I.A.N. - and if you know anything about them, then you know they are in direct opposition to F.U.N. It was early afternoon and she and I were chatting over a game of Monopoly. Life was good. I had a full-ride scholarship, was passing all of my classes and was experiencing all that fun I was so desperate for. Odd thing about fun...it kind of left me hollow inside & it seemed like it really wasn't accomplishing what I had hoped...it wasn't making me the kind of person that I wanted to be and it had actually led to some deep wounds which stay with me as scars, even today.

Anyway, Lisa and I were in the middle of Monopoly, when the conversation took a wrong turn. She asked me about GOD. The conversation remains clearly set in my mind. It would change me forever. I remember saying, "I'm not good enough to have that kind of relationship with God. You don't know what I've done."

To my shock, her response was, "You're right, you can never be good enough."

Long pause. Yeah, right, let me absorb that for a few seconds. I was about ready to cry. I really wanted her to assure me that I was a good person, that God loved me, that He would accept me because I was basically good, but deep down, I knew she was right and that I was not good enough. I knew that I would never claim to be a good person again. I knew all of the awful things I had done since coming to campus four short months earlier.

Then, she gently continued, "None of us are good enough, that is why Christ died...He paid the price for our sins. All you have to do is accept Him as your Savior."

Lisa, in God's wisdom, did not ask me to pray with her that day. Instead, we took a walk to downtown and shopped...but my life and heart were never to be the same. Late that night, in the quiet of my room, I cried out to Jesus and accepted Him as my Savior - the only One able to save me from the righteous punishment my sins deserve, the only One who could heal the hurts I had brought upon myself...and I have spent the last two decades growing in my understanding of what He has done, of what being loved by Him means, of what it means to belong to God, His own possession..and learning how to love Him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.

That one brief conversation, that one true friend who was willing to step out of her comfort zone and be used by God. I praise and thank God for that day and for all that He did and continues to do in my life. What an incredible Savior, what a blessed Friend!

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