Jesus Insurance

I'm sitting in bed right now with a sore throat. Might be strep. Might just be sinus issues. I'm a huge baby when I get sick. If I have a headache, I daydream about spending all day in bed. Add a sore throat and I start trying to cat nap in my little cubicle at Citi.

I've always been a huge baby when it comes to feeling under the weather (Note: Has anybody ever felt over the weather?) and I think it has a lot to do with fond memories of being sick as a kid. Not being sick, so much, but of being taken care of. I remember being sick from school as a kid and mom or dad would stay home with me. I'd stay in my pajamas all day, lie on the couch and watch movies all day. Sure, I felt miserable, it wasn't fun, but it was soothing to have somebody there caring for my needs. The sickness is never fun, but watching a parent's love in action is.

Now I'm 25 and living with two other guys, neither of whom I think will read me stories and pet my head when I'm sick. So now that I have no caregiver, everytime I get sick, I just assume I'm going to die.

I've got a sore throat. Better update the will.

So as I'm lying in bed, sick, thinking about J3 and what it means to share the Gospel with the people around me, I think of this:

What is my legacy? What am I leaving behind when I die? When I croak, what are the people who survive me going to think about me? Will people be at my funeral remembering me for my writing (which is hack at best)? My humor? My kindness? (Ever been to a funeral where they didn't say the corpse was kind? I can't believe Jerry's dead...he was such a jerk.)

If I'm remembered for any of these things, then I will not have left a great legacy I believe. Ultimately, when I die, I want people to say one thing before anything else.

"Wow. Jesus is awesome." Or something like that. Awesome is my word for it. I'm sure you could use a ton of others. But you kinda get the point.

If there's one message that I want my life to communicate more than anything else in this world, it's this--a relationship with Jesus is not only possible, but it is fulfilling in ways you could never imagine.

You always hear people talk about the importance of leaving a will or getting life-insurance. They say, "Make sure that the people you care for are covered if anything should happen to you." And I believe in that idea wholeheartedly, except that I don't think leaving your family money when you die is going to be enough. I think that you have to leave the people around you something more.

Think about it. We are all going to die. You are going to die. When you die, what is the one thing you want to say before you go? Me? I hope that before I die, I will have made it crystal clear to everyone around me what is responsible for me being the awesome, kick-ass person am I today--and that's Jesus Christ.

I don't want to leave my wife (ha!) or kids (double ha!) money when I die. I want to leave my family and friends something that actually means something--hope. I want to leave them with tools, wisdom, and opportunities to connect with God on a daily basis.

If I believe in Christ and if I truly believe that Christ is my only hope and that a relationship with Him is the only way my life can be fulfilling, then I need to start thinking:

1. Who haven't I shared that hope with?
2. Why haven't I shared that hope with them?

If I'm as serious about this thing as I say I am, then it's time to start acting on it. If we believe that Jesus is the light and the way and we know for a fact that people in our lives haven't made Him the central part of their lives, then I need to think:

1. How can I make myself open and receptive to God, Jesus, and the Spirit in the lives of those around me?
2. How can I erase the fear and apprehensions I have about getting into the most important topic I can ever talk to a friend about?

I leave you with this video. It's Penn Jillette of Penn & Teller. He's a funny guy and an atheist and below he talks about an interaction he had with a Christian after a show.



Does this mean we need to hand out Bibles to everyone we meet? No. But maybe it means that it really is OK to talk about this taboo topic we call Christianity.