Tip of My Iceberg

I’ve been fascinated by the TV show, The Biggest Loser, for quite some time.

It’s truly redemptive on so many levels. Many of the contestants have struggled with weight for long periods of time, often because food became a comfort when all of life turned against them. Food was something they could count on. So they needed to be coached and trained, not just to lose the weight, but to reset their brains to think about stress differently.

I get that. I understand the power of a candy bar to make you feel better about yourself. Dark chocolate solves a multitude of problems.

However, I grew up with a mom who prophetically spoke what the media preaches today: You can never be too skinny or too rich.

With Easter having just passed, I was confronted first with the preponderance of food that we use to celebrate holidays. No one’s losing there.

But the reality of Easter grabbed me in a way I hadn’t expected.

The world doesn’t get crazy nuts about Easter the way it does Christmas. Ultimately, celebrating a birth is easier than celebrating a death and resurrection. And the Easter Bunny doesn’t come close to Santa Claus and Rudolph for story possibilities.

There’s amazement and joy in a birth. Especially in the birth of the Son of God.

There’s horror and great sadness in a death. Especially an undeserved death. The death of the Son of God.

The hope is Easter. Where Jesus conquered death once and for all. He rose from the dead. A ton of people saw Him and interacted with Him.

It was real.

But why did He have to die?

Because we’re all in the same boat. And it leaks. Badly.

We’re all full of our own brand of bad. Some are worse than others. But no one is perfect.

And that’s the catch. To be able to connect with God, be in heaven eternally, we have to be perfect. Because He’s perfect.

And I’m not.

I blow it every day of my life. In some small way. Or on a grand scale. Every day.

We all do.

And I wouldn’t want to deal with a God who is anything less than perfect. Big and powerful.

Not just me on a grand scale. Better.

That’s why Jesus came. To die. To pay the price for our brand of bad. To take the punishment we deserve on Himself.

So we could experience heaven. Forgiveness. Being known and loved. Fully.

On The Biggest Loser, only one person wins. The one who had the chance to be on the show and lost the most percentage of body weight.

The show became their lives. They had to follow a strict diet. They exercised HOURS a day. They followed rules.

And when the show was over, how many of them gained it back? Because they couldn’t maintain those strict rules?

Can you imagine anything worse than giving it your best shot and not making it stick?

Jesus came so we wouldn’t have to be losers. I can’t make it to heaven on my own. I’m just not that good at following all those rules.

None of us are.

Jesus came to give us the gift of His righteousness–His ability to do it all right. Grace is His gift to us–not our efforts.

No one HAS to be the ultimate big loser. If we choose to let Him pay that price for us. Receive His gift of redemption.

I want to be the big winner–eternally.

What do you choose?

First photo courtesy of cnn.com.

Second photo courtesy of examiner.com.