Saved Isn’t the End of the Journey; It’s the Beginning

And it will be a long road.

Image from Kevin Carden Photography

Today comes a hard lesson; just as quickly as you can come back to Jesus, you can slip away. Once you are saved, it isn’t the end. You aren’t finished. You are only just beginning. And it will be a long- and at times difficult- road ahead.

I don’t write that to scare you; it’s a fact. I don’t want to sugarcoat it either. Like any relationship, having a relationship with Jesus takes real work. It isn’t finished when you are baptized. It isn’t finished when you accept Jesus into your heart. There’s still a long way to go.

This time last week, I was listening to sermons on a daily basis. I was reading books. I was highlighting verses in my Bible. I was doing good, by all accounts. And where am I now? I haven’t cracked open the Bible in a week, I haven’t read anything, I haven’t even listened to a full sermon (I did finish the last five minutes of one I had been listening to, but did I get a real message in five minutes?). I feel like I’m back where I started. What happened?

Well, life happened. I got a bad head cold, I got to binge watching West Wing, playing Nintendo, and semi-subconsciously I chose to take some time off. Except you don’t get to take time off in a relationship, do you? We all know how well “We were on a break”…