The Incredible Gift of Life

"I'm breathing in, I'm breathing out; it's here and now! This life is a gift! I won't look back, I won't slow down; it's here and now! This life is a gift!" - Hawk Nelson

Here's another: "Yesterday is history; tomorrow, a mystery; but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present." - Kung Fu Panda

Life is precious, and special. It's valuable. Life is meant to be preserved, cherished, and enjoyed. Decay and disaster seek to rob us of life. Life cannot be a gift, however, without a Giver.

Even the fact that we have today is a gift. Spend the time as you wish, but it is a gift that you still live and breathe. The breath that fills your lungs could be filling someone else's right now, but a Creator decided that you were the best, most wonderful, most precious person to be breathing that air. He gave life to you, and continues to do so, because He loves you. He could have created anyone, and yet He created you. A perfect God creating a perfect Creation, born in a fallen world. The sin that steals away our God's gift of life also warps our vision.

You, perhaps, like me have trouble seeing that you are cherished by an all powerful God. Maybe you're the one who can't bring yourself around to loving Him because you can't love yourself. Your insecurity, fear, and shame bar your way to freedom. You do all you can to make God appreciate and love you; and in doing so, create a complacency that cuts you off from the One who loves you most.

God's showing me that a comfortable faith is an unprofitable one. When I first came to Him, I depended on Him for everything, because faith was all new and I had no idea what I was doing. Now that I've been shown the ropes, I haven't pushed my faith's boundaries very far, and as such, have been living in a complacent faith.

I did all of the things I did before, but they became commonplace, and faith was no longer required. Thus, when God challenged my faith, I wasn't practiced in trust and I fell. Not desiring to have to trust God, and caught in my pride, and unwilling to lean on His strength, I despaired for something I had never lost: life.

Living separated from Christ isn't easy when you've tasted just how good He is. Initially, it feels like the oxygen has been sucked from your lungs, and it hurts. Later, the pain numbs and you can no longer feel anything but an emptiness where your joy used to be. Always longing for the 'better' days, when you had faith, yet never pursuing an end to those means.

"You ever bury yourself in self-righteous guilt? (Huh, me too)
Are there fresh tally marks on the walls of your brain's prison?
Hoping that the count of good deeds outnumber the bad ones?
Are your miserable failures your badges of honor?
And when you count those tallies, 
and the day the good outnumber the bad,
pat yourself on the back?
Congratulations, you have joined the rest of humanity." - Propaganda

Why, in our guilt, void ourselves from the Giver of life? Rather than receiving a gift that is offered us DAILY, we choose the anti-gift; a something that is existing, and yet not living. Living is Christ; one cannot have life apart from Him. Similarly, once born into Christianity, one commits spiritual suicide by un-grafting themselves from the True Vine. Oh, what a wonderful mercy that God holds us tight and we can never leave His family! Our salvation is held tight because of His faithfulness, and is not lost because of our own doing.

Grace is a mystery to me. I have knowledge of what it is, and can describe it to others, and yet seeing it applied in my life is an area that I struggle. I cannot give myself the grace that God gives me; neither can I see myself as He does. He's been showing me that He'd rather me fail and mess up while acting in faith than to follow the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," approach. God doesn't want consistent followers, He wants bold ones. 

Pushing the limits is what He encourages; there is no final destination. Everything we do should be in dependency of our God; a self-sustaining lifestyle is one that is lukewarm. Adrenaline junkies feel most alive when they push the limits, and I believe life was meant to do just that: push limits.

Do you have faith? Put it to the test. Peter outlines a plan of a way to consistently grow our faiths:

"For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being useless or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." - 2 Peter 1:5-8

God gave us a life because He cherishes us. No one else is as perfect to live the life you've been given than you, because a perfect God made you that way. Don't be beaten down by your failures, or seek to please God with a consistent faith. He'd rather you fail with faith than succeed without needing to rely on Him. And when we push the boundaries of our faith, we feel the most alive, which was the gift of life in the first place. For what is life without living? Therefore, as you push the boundaries, seek to #LiveItLikeJesus, the One who exampled the life we should lead.