A LIFE-ALTERING STORY
NOTE: This is a very personal blog post. It’s taken from the Preface to my newest book, The Perfect Savior. It gives you an insight into my heart.
Have you ever read a book and become so absorbed in the story that it absorbs you? This was my experience in writing The Perfect Savior. This devotional helped save my life, because through the process of writing it, Jesus overwhelmed my heart with his love and enabled me to face the worst suffering I’ve ever experienced.
I began writing this devotional shortly before my wife, Linda, was diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer. In the beginning of our journey, we believed she’d be healed on this side of eternity, but God had a different plan. Eight months later, he took her home and healed her forever in heaven. Through it all, I’ve never doubted God’s goodness. He’s been with me every step of the way. In some ways, my journey has paralleled Jesus’s, only infinitesimally less intense.
As Jesus took his first step from Galilee toward Jerusalem, I began walking a road with him I’d never walked before—a road that would culminate in death. During the final week of his life, he entered the Holy City amidst celebration. Linda and I celebrated little victories early on as we believed God would heal her. When it became clear that, without a miracle, she wouldn’t be healed, I joined Jesus in my own Gethsemane, agonizing in prayer, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
He trudged up the hill to Golgotha, and I faced my own spiritual form of crucifixion, dying to self, knowing my suffering could never compare to his. During those times when I felt like quitting, Linda spurred me on to continue writing, always believing in me.
Through it all, God hasn’t failed me. I never cried, as Jesus did, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” because God hasn’t forsaken me—and he never will. In that moment on the cross, Jesus faced hell for us. He felt the sting of God’s rejection so none of us will ever have to experience the agony of being rejected by God.
Metaphorically, I feel as if I’m lying in a tomb awaiting the resurrection and asking myself, “How long must I endure this pain?” The days in this dark tomb of grief seem unending. But my hope doesn’t waiver. I know the resurrection is coming.
This is the message of The Perfect Savior—hope. Hope in the midst of a dark world. Hope that, no matter what hell we face on earth, heaven awaits us. Hope that in the midst of a dark tomb, light will shine, life will return, and love will triumph.
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