Free Gas for Your Think Tank — Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement

Daily writing prompt

Describe an item you were incredibly attached to as a youth. What became of it?

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There was a picture in my family’s home that I have never forgotten. Although I don’t remember it ever hanging on a wall or being on display, it somehow became attached to my memory and will occasionally come across my mind.

I think that picture was mostly kept in a closet. If I remember correctly, my grandfather brought it to us as a gift. I remember that when I was very young, I first saw it when it was in the middle of a made-up bed, and it captured my attention. I stared at it and pondered it. It was like nothing I had ever seen.

It was an old picture in an antique curvy golden frame. The sky was full of dark clouds and a few people were looking up at a man who had been horribly tortured and was now dead. Nails were in his hands and feet, and he hung limply from a wooden beam supported by a wooden pole. Thorns were wrapped around his head and his body full of bloody wounds. A soldier with a spear was standing in front of a gaping hole in his body and blood was pouring out.

I didn’t understand that picture. Although my family wasn’t religious, I knew that the man in the picture was called Jesus, but I knew hardly anything about him. Yet, somehow, I felt a tender, heart-felt attachment to the picture. A few times I searched to find it in a closet so I could look at it. But I eventually forgot about it.

Years later as a freshman in college, although I was an agnostic, I walked into a meeting in my dorm where students were sharing how they had met Jesus and how he had changed their life. In an instant something I can’t explain happened in my heart and Jesus was suddenly real to me. He wasn’t dead in an old picture. He was living in my heart. Ever since that moment I have sought to focus on, listen to, and obey Jesus. He has walked with me and talked with me, and I have experienced what the Bible calls “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

I learned that that old picture portrayed the great love that God has for me (and for you). It showed how the Creator became a man in Jesus Christ and then suffered and died on the Cross to pay the penalty for my sins (and yours). As powerful as that picture was in my life, I have no idea what happened to it.

Official Christianity can easily become superficial but there’s nothing artificial about letting Jesus have full control of your heart. Listening to God requires patience, focus, and humility. It’s not automatic.

Instead of trying
To disguise
Your guilt
Be wise.
Apologize.

Because it’s inspired
Faith is acquired
And grows in
An open humble heart.
Faith isn’t learned by a mind.
It’s motivated
And activated
By God
In a person
Who avoids
Being mired
In distractions
And stuck in
Diverting attractions.

If you have ever heard about Jesus, but haven’t followed and obeyed Him, look back at who you have left behind. He’s patiently waiting for you.