My friend Jesus

Jesus died this morning.

Not really. Jesus died a long time ago. And he's alive now. Why would he need to die again? The one time was plenty.

But in my reading this morning, he died. In Luke's account.

When I say what I'm about to say, I'm not trying to be holier-than-thou, or super-spiritual, because I'm not, so please do not take it as such. So, moving on...I read the Bible every morning and every night. It is literally the first thing I do in the morning, before my feet even hit the floor. And it's one of the last things I do at night before I go to sleep. I do the bulk of my reading at night, because I'm less distracted and my brain works better. I read just a little bit in the morning, and the point of that really is just to focus myself first thing...to have a little reminder that hey, God's with me, and hey, I'm living my life for him...or I should be.

Because of that, I don't usually give a lot of in-depth thought to what I read in the morning. Sometimes, to be honest, by the end of the day, I don't even remember what I read that morning. But when Jesus dies, it's a different story. No matter which of the four accounts of Jesus' life I read, when it gets to the part about him dying, I take notice if I wasn't paying attention before, or if I was paying attention before, I take extra special notice. And it's at least in the back of my mind all day, if not right in the forefront.

A lot happened in that moment. A lot that I don't even understand, and probably never will. But what I do understand, is that he died so that you and I wouldn't have to suffer the punishment for our sin. He took the punishment instead. For all of it.

That's why I pay special attention. That's the greatest thing anyone ever has of ever could do for me. And I am humbled every time I think about it.

That's why I live my life the way that I do, striving to follow God. He loved me so much that he suffered so I wouldn't have to. So in return, out of my gratitude and my own love for him, I want to live for him, I want to know him, I want to do things to let other people know how great he is. And then maybe they'll get to know him, too. It's the same way with so many people I know. I know a lot of incredible people and feel blessed to call them my family and friends. I feel so privileged to know them and get to spend time with them, and in return I try to do things for them, because I love them. And I'm always really eager to introduce them to other people I know. So it is with Jesus, only even bigger, because as incredible as all the people I know are, he's more incredible than all of them put together.

And that's why I start every day by reading the Bible, to give myself that reminder. Some days, it seems to be more effective than others. And I pray that today is one of those days.

By the way, this isn't the end of the story. It's just part one. I expect to be reading part two tomorrow morning, so I also expect to have another blog talking about part two tomorrow. Stay tuned, ladies and gents. It just gets better. :)