Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Expert (09/05/13)
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TITLE: on my own life | Previous Challenge Entry
By leland jones
09/06/13 -
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When I was an adolescent, I was the specialist on everything. Like most of my kind, when I turned 13 I attained a state of knowledge that no adult could match and it only developed further as I progressed through my teenage years. My friends and I moved on from creating our own worlds as small children and effortlessly solved the problems of the world we lived in. What my friends and I could not understand was why nobody seemed to take our solutions seriously or even attempt to apply them. Looking back, maybe it was in the presentation, because surely there could be no problem with the content, right?
As a young adult I thought I was the authority on marriage and family matters until a nervous breakdown, a divorce, and financial struggles entered my life. I had to learn how to start over and rebuild things I didn’t know were broken and even some things I never dreamed could be broken. These things taught me how to become an expert on things like forgiveness, humility, and yes, even on my own sinful nature. I learned of those things that stay as a thorn in the flesh even after we come to know the mercy and grace found in Christ alone. I recognized that though sin is forgiven, the effects of sin do not so easily wash away from the human condition.
Now, as a middle aged man, a father, and a husband I have come to realize that there are few, if any things that I am an expert on. I have come to understand that although I am a connoisseur of many things, there are more that I am uneducated on, lack training in, or am completely clueless about. I am sometimes acutely aware that there are those who assume they are more connected to my life than I am. I have felt the pain of being helpless to stop the suffering of someone I love, and the elation of seeing them overcome their circumstances to live a stable life. I am also keenly cognizant of the underlying thread of grace that has flowed in my life since the day I came to know Jesus as Savior. It gives me great peace to know that though I have lived through sunny and calm days, steered through savage storms, stared down fire and death and lived to tell the tale; it is not I, but the risen Christ who is the expert on me. I am not the expert on my life then, merely the beneficiary of the expertise of Christ.
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Thank for breaking my heart and putting it back together again . . .
I wish I had thought of it first! Seriously, so good. And, that last line was from within...excellent!
GOD Bless~