Okay, there is absolutely no way I can finish this in one entry. This will
require many, many days and many posts. But this is where I’m going. This is
what 2012 is all about for me. Total surrender to my Savior. And, what provoked
this posting was a girl.
She’s
18. I’m rapidly approaching 23. And I have so much to learn from her.
This
girl is an incredible, talented, intelligent, very friendly, girl. What makes
her stand out is she has not just passion, but EXTREME PASSION and UNWAVERING
LOVE of God. She is totally surrendered; there isn't a doubt in my mind. And
there are many ways I know this, but one solidified any question, and there was
no question.
In
the Spring of 2012, WKU had a magician named Jim Munroe come to our campus for
a campus-wide outreach, in which he told his story of coming to Christ. Nobody
could ever forget it. He had been diagnosed with cancer in his bone marrow, and
I believe it was terminal, he was dead. Obviously, he didn't die and here’s
why. There was a revolutionary procedure at the time done that included completely
destroying his immune system, removing every last drop of bone marrow from his
body, and during this process, any single free radical that our bodies can
either fight off or cause us to get sick… anything would kill him because he
would have zero immunity to it. In turn, he would receive bone marrow from a
donor… in which the marrow had to be a perfect match, otherwise it would be
incompatible and attack the body system. He would end up living and thereby
being instantly cured of his terminal cancer. What an amazing story. God used
it to share the Gospel with him too… CRAZY stuff… the crazy thing, he was
essentially “dead” for 3 days… and the moment the new marrow came into his
body, it was a new life, literally. And the young lady that donated her marrow... became Jim's hero.
This
girl I spoke of before, named Sammi, is giving of her selfless life, interrupting her education,
her duties on the BCM Leadership Team, and putting her life on the line for
another person by doing what saved Jim Munroe. Another donor, another chance to
share the Gospel. New life for a terminally ill patient.
Sammi
will literally become a hero, because as she posted, if something prevented her
from giving her marrow at this point, this patient is DEAD, GUARANTEED. She is
becoming a hero, and there is no question it is because of Christ, and she has
been compelled by Christ to do this… maybe not shedding her blood, but giving
of what gives her immunity, for this patient.
Talk
about admiring someone. And it's all for the glory of Christ.
But
Sammi is just a grain of sand… a whisper in the wind… how can she, or any of
us, make a difference? Only through Christ. This should be an insignificant
gesture. But it scares the crap out of me… risking my life to save another?
Would I be willing to give a kidney, some of my liver, my bone marrow… just because of the love
of Christ?! To save someone, just because I felt compelled to? "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? (Romans 7:24)"
Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:25)
Luke
14:26 states, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother,
his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple.” (Personal
emphasis added.)
The
Sermon on the Mount… Matthew 5-7… the whole thing… all points to this: It is
all or nothing. It is throughout the Bible. Our lives are to be totally
surrendered. When we receive Christ as Savior of our lives, we don’t say, “God,
I surrender my Sunday mornings and maybe my Wednesdays to you.” No, that is an
incomplete salvation, and Christ didn’t die just to save some of you. Christ
went to the cross to completely cover all of you, your every sin, and through
the working of the Holy Spirit, Romans 12:2 comes into play… “be transformed by the renewing of your
minds.”(personal emphasis added) Matthew 13:1-9, explained in 18-23… Henry
Blackaby speaks on this that we must DAILY ready our hearts to be good soil so
that the Word of the Lord may be planted in us and bear fruit… (From the Devotional Experiencing God Day By Day by Henry T. Blackaby & Richard
Blackaby).
Again,
I know this is kind of loosely done, but this is just the beginnings of a
thought that I have that will take days, months… my entire life… to figure out.
But what I can tell you, is THIS is one of, if not the, missing link in my struggle with spiritual discipline.
Any
struggle I had with Acts 1:8 this summer (and it was A LOT of struggle), is
probably attributed to getting this down.
I’ll
end with a link to a song that one of the singers of the Clear band (the current worship band I psuedo-lead) wants to do. And it
is powerful… and all about total surrender. =)
Open Hands by Matt Papa
Godspeed,
~Kevin~
