Don't Take It For Granted

Don’t Take It For Granted

Theology in the Trenches

by Kathleen Kjolhaug

Don’t take it for granted when you’re able to flip on the light switch upon coming home. So mundane it is that we miss the miracle of the light. In more ways than one is the Light…light…and thus we often take miracles for granted.

Don’t take it for granted the time spent upon bended knee in Gethsemane. History has it detailed. Wise men near and far have long held that up to the Light as truth. You need not prove the theory all over again, but rather, because it happened, the gift of faith is yours for the asking. Don’t take that for granted.

You didn’t step foot into the accuser’s corner helping condemn Him to death cause you didn’t have to. Years later, we get the privilege of scoffing if we so choose, but as He chose us, it’s a bit hard to carry that one off without the weight of the world upon us. Nope, don’t have to take that one for granted either cause He stepped up and carried. We need not carry. Don’t take that for granted.

No shortcuts there were to Calvary; no shortcuts are there in this world. Shoulder up and allow your burdens to be carried by placing them squarely upon His shoulders. It merely lightens loads. Don’t take that for granted.

He climbed a monumental hill, crawled onto that cross, received the hammer and nails as they nailed Him for what they thought would be one final time. Little did they know that they couldn’t place Him on that cross once and for all…but rather for all. Yup, little did those who had to carry out that horrendous deed know how much it wasn’t the end but rather, the beginning.

You see, when you take it for granted, you miss the power poured out. You miss the opportunity to confess and lighten your load. You miss being absolved from each and every sin in the forgiveness of sin through confession. You miss being able to receive His love poured out which brings forth the fruit of compassion and gratitude and your ability to pour out upon those beside us the very love given to us through the way of the cross.

There simply are no shortcuts in life. Don’t take that for granted. It truly is His way or the highway. Your way won’t even begin to pave a path. Oh, it may make sense at the time.  You full well may go your own way, but don’t take for granted the gifts you will miss out on. After all, they were given for you...for me.

Lest we confess we are sinners, we do not qualify. You see, He did not come for the righteous, but for the sinners (Luke 5:32). I, for one, qualify…and do not take for granted what He did for all…once and for all.  Amen.