What Jesus Means to Me — The Life Preserver

I’m treading water out in the middle of the ocean, my arms getting leaden, my breaths becoming shallower and more desperate.  No one is out there I can see who is able to rescue me.  It is only a matter of time.  The prospect of drowning terrifies me and yet some part of me is almost ready to give in to it.

From out of the darkness comes a life preserver, a lifesaver, one of those white shipboard floating rings with a rope attached to it.  I do not reason as I used to as to whether Christ is really the answer, or if the Bible is really not just the product of men who are prone to error, or if people who talk about such things aren’t just fanatics.  I no longer want to give in and slip beneath the surface and end it all.  My heart fills with hope beyond all hope and I cling desperately to the donut of my salvation when I hear His voice call out over the waves saying, “I have come that you might have life.”

As he reels me in I have no idea what is in store for me, only that something profoundly new and real has just occured.  He has come into my life in the most amazing of circumstances and my life will never be the same.

In a sense, I’m still being reeled in.  I don’t have any fear of drowning, I’m not living with some constant tension about the life presever or whether it can hold me or whether I can hold it.  I am relaxed in His grip but I know I haven’t reached yet the place of total withdrawal from the sea.  But in due time I will feel His hands pull me on board and my struggle will be completely over, my doubts completely erased, my life completely saved.