Alan

Somehow if I can be good enough and do enough good, God will have to take notice. I mean that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? The goal is to somehow scrape through the pearly gates. With a bit of luck and a lot of work I can accumulate more good stuff than bad stuff and that should be enough. You know how it goes, abstain from this, give to that, attend at Christmas and Easter and look the part.

This is insane and I’m exhausted! It’s also a bit of a gamble. I mean, really, is this what God intended for my life on planet Earth? There has to be another way.

I was 16 years of age and I hated to read. I mean it - I probably had never read a single book from cover to cover. How’s that for a good Irish education? I remember struggling through Animal Farm and just barely making it! But I was hungry to see if there was more to my existence than trying to outweigh the good over all the bad in my life in order to make it into heaven. So I wiped the dust off the thickest book I had ever come within 5 feet of: The Bible.

Lying in my bed in the early hours of the morning I muttered as earnestly as I knew how; God, help me read this, help me find you in these pages, I want to know you. Turning the cover, my eyes fell on the first page of the first book and the pages began to turn.

All I can say is that an outright miracle took place. I could hardly put it down. The words were jumping off the page and were becoming alive to me. And it was more than just a novel or a fairytale, it held meaning for me and I was getting to know the author. The same person that I thought I had to please and toil for and earn his approval was dismantling my thinking entirely. Book after book I could not put it down, night after night.

My story is simple. I have discovered something. The God of the Bible loves me. And his love has covered my multitude of sins. I no longer strive to reach a standard that I cannot meet; I am wholly dependent on the fact that Jesus Christ has met that standard on my behalf. And now I am living for him.