2 Corinthians 5:14-17

Change... some people like it, others do not. Sometimes change is good, other times not so much. To me it seems it all depends on perspective and what it is causing the change. Four years ago I began to change. Slowly something began to tug at my heart. I had made a decision to live for Jesus. I made that decision not knowing the so called "cost" of following Christ. It was not a bad change but from my perspective it looked like it could be. I verbally expressed it but my actions did not show it. For two years there was a mental, spiritual, and physical struggle. I was sitting on the fence, one foot with Christ, the other with the world.

Something began to change even more, however. I began to see more and more benefits of living for Christ. Not only did I see it spiritually, but also mentally and physically. I went to Africa for a month and returned with somewhat of a new perspective... it took a while to realize. I began to understand more of what it meant to be a "Christian". I saw the benefits and reasons as to why leaving the "old self" behind was a good thing. I saw the benefits and protection offered on the "Jesus side" of the fence.

Christ's love began to control me. The Holy Spirit moved in me. Four years ago had you told me I would go to Africa, change my life, finish a Perspectives class, and feel pulled and tugged toward a future trip to Haiti, I would not have believed you. I would have called you crazy. I would have thought I was going to turn out crazy. I am, in a way, crazy... crazy in love with Christ! Crazy in love enough to get rid of the old and start fresh with the new. Christ's crazy love for me is what controls me. The crazy love poured out on the cross is the craziness I live for.
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"... Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"

~*2 Corinthians 5:14-17 (NLT)*~