Tonight I sat quietly working on my laptop, focused on my upcoming small group, prayer team ministries, and church responsibilities. I looked over at my wife, just a few feet away, working diligently on her lesson for tomorrow evening's jail ministry.
And it hit me just how much our lives have changed.
There was a time when quiet nights like this weren't really our thing. Honestly, they weren't much of an option because of the lifestyle we chose to live. We believed in God. We considered ourselves Christians. But the truth is, our lives didn't always reflect what we said we believed. The conviction just wasn't there.
And somehow, by the incredible grace of God, He called us back.. not just back to church or to some system or practice, but back to Him.
Tonight I found myself thinking about who we used to be, and that life almost feels like it belonged to someone else. Some of it has gotten so far away that it's genuinely difficult to remember.
Our interests are different now. Our passions are different. Our hobbies are different. Many of our friends are different. The way we spend our time and our money is different. The things we look forward to are different. Even the things that make us happy are different. And oddly enough, we didn't sit down one day and decide to intentiaonally reinvent ourselves.
We encountered a living, loving God, and in His way and in His time, He changed us.
We're still imperfect. We still get things wrong. We still have plenty of places where God is working on us. But tonight, sitting there watching my wife prepare to go minister to people in jail while I worked on things God has placed in front of me, I was overwhelmed for a moment by the contrast. Everything we do now is centered around God and our faith.
This isn't at all the life we used to live, not even a shadow of it. And I don't miss it.
Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” -2 Corinthians 5:17
I've read that verse plenty of times. Tonight, I looked across the room and saw it: The old is gone. The new has come.
And I'm just incredibly grateful that God loved us enough not to leave us where He found us. And that He carried us through this new journey together, in tandem.
My love for God has never been stronger. The same is true for how I feel about my wife. After all these years, everything we have accomplished, the successes that we were blessed with, the things we have acquired... none of it ending up really mattering. Just those two things have continued to come back to center. Those two priorities that prove that I have made it, that I have arrived, and that success can be claimed in life and in love.
Thank you Jesus that your way is better. Thank you for your abundant grace, your favor, and your love for us. May this be true for all who genuinely believe and proudly call you papa.
~ Devin
Devin Osborne
The Early Church
