Yesterday, I found something better than life itself.
"Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you." - Psalm 63:3
Hello, my friends. This is obviously an article drawn from my personal faith in Jesus, but I hope that admission right up front won't be a reason for my as yet unbelieving friends to "tune out."
As I've said in the past, and continue to maintain, one benefit of interacting in an online community like Steemit is that we get to meet friends from a vast variety of backgrounds. I believe that there are things that I can learn from each of you, no matter how diverse our beliefs.
I've been struggling a bit recently,
trying to make ends meet, while watching myself grow older. Lately, it has seemed to me that I can almost literally watch myself age in real-time. I look at my hands, and they are not the hands I remember. The face in the mirror is no longer that of a vital young man.
Problems of Aging
Photo courtesy of Swaraj Tiwari and http://unsplash.com
I've been re-reading the Psalms lately.
If any of you, my Steemit friends, find yourself at loose ends, may I suggest reading the Psalms? They are filled with heart. They expose the deepest hopes and fears of people who struggle with life, even as you and I do. The Psalms record every level of this roller-coaster ride we call life; not just the peaks, but also the deepest dips and the most terrifying bumps.
When I came across this verse yesterday,
I was riveted. Here I am, worrying about my life, contemplating its not too distant end, when this phrase simply leaped out at me:
"Your steadfast love is better than life."
Wow, seriously? Better than life?
What's the worst thing that could happen to me? Why am I spending any energy at all thinking about the problems of personal and family survival and aging? Even if I die, I have the steadfast love of Jesus to rely on. I can absolutely count on him to be always acting in my best interests. His love is reliable and unchanging. He takes my every bump, each misstep, every error of mine in stride.
What's Better Than Life?
Photo courtesy of Ben White and http://unsplash.com
I have found Jesus,
who I believe to be God himself become man, to be the most wonderful, reliable, loving friend ever. The unswerving love of God has sustained me this far in my life, and I have no reason to expect that to change, ever.
My believing friends, I encourage you to continue to believe and to grow in your faith. And my friends who have not yet come to know Jesus?
As I often do,
I encourage you to read the book that John wrote. If you've grown up apart from faith, you may have been relying on bad information. You know, "Things other people say about Jesus," or "Ideas I have about Jesus," information you've picked up here and there.
Why not go "straight to the horse's mouth" for a change? Read John's book, an account written by one of Jesus' contemporaries, someone who lived, ate, worked with Jesus. Then see what you think.
FIN
You are why I'm here on Steemit!
I have very eclectic interests and hope, over time, to write about them all.
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