New Life

For anyone who doesn’t know me, I am a master procrastinator. I’m one of those people who is always busy doing something and even when I’m trying to relax I have to do something to relax. Enter Candy Crush. If you have never played Candy Crush where have you been for the last decade?? Candy crush is one of those mobile games that you can spend your entire day on, except that you only have five lives, and the lives take half an hour to regenerate. This used to annoy me but now I am thankful because I realise I would get absolutely nothing done if I had unlimited lives.

So one morning I’d the house to myself, I thought I’d play a few wee levels of CC while enjoying the quiet of the house after the Christmas holidays. Now you can ask friends to send you lives in candy crush and I have a number of friends who also play who kindly oblige. This morning, when I went to accept the lives sent by friends I noticed something a little unusual. Instead of saying so and so sent you a life, there was an anonymous one. It simply read “You have received a new life”! Boom! Isn’t that the truth?!

I must say, I love finding messages from God in random places but Candy Crush is definitely a new one for me! I remember being at YPC and listening to Matt Summerfield talking about different encounters with Jesus, and how we are chosen by Jesus, changed by Jesus and challenged by Jesus. It was an uplifting and challenging weekend, that left me feeling, well the only way I could explain it to my friend was Holy Spirit hyperactive! I entered the following week and indeed new year with a lot of excitement and anticipation of what God had in store, for me, for my family and friends, for All Saints Clooney and all our neighbouring churches and communities.

We have a new life. Jesus gives us new life. We don’t have to wait for the timer to count down, but like in Candy Crush, where I have to send requests to friends for lives, we have to ask for it. We have to ask Jesus into our lives to give us new life. Then we have to take that life and live it in fullness for Him.

You can have a new life. A wonderful life. A challenging life. An exciting life. It isn’t always an easy life but it is a worthwhile life! So worthwhile that Jesus Christ paid for it with his very own life. What a cost he paid.

Are you ready for a new life? Just ask.