Testimony

When I was 16 years old, I had a great job, my own car and I was just about to start college. On the outside I seemed to have it all together, but on the inside, I was a mess. I was still living at home in the midst of a very disfunctional family, and my life did not taste good to me. In fact, it gave me a very bad taste, and I was seeking in my heart for something, but I didn't know what.

When the light of my cousin swept into my life, I think I was a little attracted to her glamour. She was tall and she had this big head of beautifully styled blond hair and perfectly made-up face. It was curious for me, to meet a cousin whom I did not know existed, who came to mean a lot to me in a very short period of time (kind of like she was an angel). She listened to me. She really cared about me as a person, and seemed to understand what I was going through. And she was full of praise and thankfulness to a person she called Jesus Christ. However, I was truly not interested in Him. For I equated Him with "religion" and rejected it. I was enamored of the person who cared about me enough to listen and really seemed to love me.

Cynthia eventually invited me to live with her, as I was desperate to escape my home life, and I took her up on it. I remember that her daughter Crystal, 10 years old at the time, gave up her bed for me. She stayed in a small "L" shaped bedroom and she was so delighted to sleep on a bean bag at the top of the "L", while I slept in the comfort of her canopy bed at the bottom of the "L". My life started to taste good:-)

Eventually, through her testimony and prayers and other influences, I did believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And now when I reflect on how He drew me to himself, I can't help but think of this verse:

"For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."
2 Corinthians 4:6-7

An earthen vessel who influenced my life was my cousin Cynthia. She was far from being a perfect person, like the Lord. But He shined out of her into my heart so brightly; and eventually I recognized Him and fell at his feet (splashed really, but we won't go there:-). God desires each one of us to shine and sprinkle as we go about our daily lives.

He knows things that we aren't always aware of. That there are people walking about in darkness, partaking of a tasteless existence. People who really need Jesus Christ. It is my prayer this morning that we would lift up our eyes to the Lord, from whence our help cometh, and lower our eyes again, to the people He seeks to help.

Jesus says: "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men."