The Deadly Infection

He is the suffering lamb-who exchanges places with sinful humanity.  I still have a hard time wrapping my head around sin and its lethality.  Let's face it: it is the most deadly infection to ever plague earth throughout all of history.  And the crazy thing is-most people don't even know they are infected! Often people live their whole lives, ultimately dying from this disease, but never knowing they had it!  And the mind-blowing thing is that although it is the deadliest disease in the world, it is also the most easily cured disease in the world-through Jesus! 
On my flights home from Driver Training, I read Proof of Heaven, a book written by a neurosurgeon who used to be apathetic to God or the idea of unconditional love/Heaven.  Seemingly out of nowhere, he was infected with bacterial meningitis, a disease that eats away at the part of your brain that "makes you human-allows you to be conscious of your existence, and so forth."  The doctor experienced a near-death experience by which he entered a place of unconditional love, acceptance, and indescribable beauty.  (He also met his long-lost biological sister that he had never met or heard of before while there, but that's another story).  Anyway, he came back from this experience, suffering comatose for 7 days, and entered back into the world changed and renewed, free from the bondage he once felt and with a new appreciation for the life he has been granted by God.  In other word, he felt free from this deadly infection that had hampered him for years. 
God has freed us from these feelings, emotions, and actions and calls us to run to Him, remembering that he, as Mike reminded us on Sunday morning, doesn't make mistakes.  He has called us for a very real purpose-to serve Him wholeheartedly and to remember that we can be freed of this infection.  We can't do anything to "cure" ourselves, we can't serve our way into salvation.  It is only through the freely given, selfless gift of the Cross that are forgived, redeemed, and saved by grace through faith. 
Although I know this, I have such a hard time asking for the "medication" of Jesus.  Not just "asking" for it, but accepting it.  He holds the syringe in front of me, ready to inject the painless shot of love, forgiveness, and freedom, yet I resist it.  "Things are better when I am in control" I tell Jesus.  "I know what I am doing."  "I got this."  Man, it is not until I humble myself at the foot of his cross, kneel down in front of him, and stand in awe of my weakness, incapabilities, and emptiness without him, that I can be freely redeemed.  I think this weekend is a perfect starting point for me to remember the cross, his willingness to take on that deadly infection in order to free us from it, and then his resurrection that "killed death" once and for all.