UP 12

Super Mario Bros=one of the best video games of all time. I loved playing that game... jumping from block to block, shooting fireballs, and jumping and head-butting blocks to receive mushrooms to give you an "extra life". I always saved up about 3-4 lives before I would lose them all within minutes of each other. Great game.

My real life has been very similar in that I've seemingly used up several extra lives! In middle school, I almost drowned. I can still remember how peaceful it was looking up at the light streaming through the rippling water overhead. Not sure who pulled me out of the water that day but I do know it was God saying, "It's not time yet." Then it was 12 years ago today. Attending Oklahoma Baptist University. On a walk with one of my best friends at OBU. Hit with a beer bottle, crushing my face and leaving me permanently blind in my right eye. Again, I should have died but I know it was God saying, "Still not time yet." Then in December of 2006 I was t-boned in an intersection by my newly purchased home. Woke up in the ambulance. Concussion. Bruises. But perfectly fine otherwise (can't say that for my totaled car...). "Nope, still not time."

Why am I still here after so many "close calls"? Why are any of us here at all? I'm glad for this anniversary. I'm thankful for the painful reminder 12 years ago. 12 years of time. 30 years altogether. What have I done with this time that the Creator of the universe has given me? There is one God. He is not Allah, Buddha, or any other "religious" name - He despises those idols. He sent JESUS, His only Son, to DIE for ME. To die for YOU. We were created for one reason: to LOVE and serve GOD with our lives. There is nothing else. If you don't know my God, and know Him personally, your life is meaningless and will end in despair. It is not enough to know of Him. It is not enough to go to church. It is not enough to be a good person or do good things.

The few, brief years I have on this earth belong to the One, true God. I am reminded today that this life can be taken at any moment. When my life finally does end I know there is an afterlife with my God waiting for me. My hope, my life, is the Lord's.