There All Along

Having faith in Jesus fills me with hope. This is the kind of hope that is beyond what any person, experience, or relationship can provide; the kind of hope that transcends disappointment, failure, and despair; the kind of hope that provides meaning, purpose, and direction for life here on Earth; the kind of hope that assures me there is something beyond this life, better than this life. Jesus is hope, and He has shared it with me.

I was raised Catholic and consider myself a believer from a very early age. What my belief lacked though was a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. When I was in junior high I attended a summer camp that my friend had invited me to and it was there that I dedicated myself to a relationship with Christ. It would still be several years, though, until I understood what that truly meant and what my role in that relationship was. In college I began attending a nondenominational Christian church and a bible study group and I watched as men and women around me modeled life with Jesus. This is when my faith truly became my own. Even as a believer, Christ still had to transform my heart and faith in who He was in order to move me from believer to follower. Now I can look back on my Catholic upbringing with gratitude, realizing that the richness and meaning I now see in church, scripture, and Christ was there all along, waiting to be discovered fully.

Part of the hope I have in Christ is knowing that this life is not the end of being, that there is another life waiting for me in Heaven: a perfect life far from anything I can imagine here on Earth. I am blessed and grateful for this life God has given me, and knowing God has a place for me in Heaven gives my life a different perspective. And though I am far from perfect, I await the day that the Lord will look at me and say, "Well done, good and faithful servant."