By Dr. Ted Baehr
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.
– Ephesians 2:8-9
If you are defining your life, self-centered and debauched, or even just doubt everything religious, your life may be full of lots of achievements and even lots of fun, as mine was, but perhaps you have very little peace or real joy, or too many things about your life bother you, or you are trapped in the world, or in the flesh, or in your pride. And, there is no exit from a life without a real anchor of hope.
What do you do?
This is a strange question, because when you are really trapped in yourself, there is nothing you can do except…
For example, once, when I was a teenager, I was speeding down a three lane road to my high school. I tried to pass a truck on the narrow road in my Volvo P-1800 sports car (one of the first six in the USA), but I found out that another car was coming from the opposite direction in the same middle lane. Trying to avoid the truck and the car, I drove off a steep 100-to-120-foot embankment. As a result, I was trapped upside down in my car with no way to get out. Miraculously, though I did not believe in miracles, the truck driver stopped, ran down to my car and pulled the steel door off its hinges to get me out.
So, growing up near New York City on 120 acres, with a famous Hollywood and Broadway star father and beautiful former Hollywood star mother, I was trapped in a world most people imagine they want. My mother died when I was turning into a teenager, and I went off the deep end into drugs, self-destructive behavior and looking for love in all the wrong places. I was successful in many ways but had nothing substantial. I was “thinged by things” and the world, the flesh and the devil.
Have you ever had what almost everyone think they wants, but even so, you knew that something was missing?
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
- Content: +4Share:
- Content: +2