Near Disaster: I was in high school. At my summer construction job, we were demolishing tall buildings in downtown Richmond, VA. The police showed up to warn us that some of dangerous debris was falling over onto the sidewalk. The foreman sent me and two friends to the top floor with screwdrivers!? We climbed into the claw/shovel of the crane; he left us with two floors to climb up in the middle of all sorts of pipes, wires, etc. We straddled the outside wall, only two rickety bricks thick, and pried loose the bricks with our “tools,” one at a time. That was scary enough, but, suddenly, the claw came down about six feet behind us and chomped up a big chunk of the remaining wall. Not only were we trapped now, but next chomp would be us! They forgot about us! I started throwing bricks at the cab down below, hoping someone would remember where we were (it never crossed my mind that I could have hurt/killed someone). It worked! The foreman yelled at us through a bullhorn and the shovel appeared near us. All we had to do was jump about 6 feet onto it from the sixth floor! When we landed, I wanted to kiss the ground!

My two buddies let everybody know—they were convinced I had single-handedly saved their lives. Nothing I or anybody else said could talk them out of it. The rest of that summer I never had to buy a drink, a snack or my lunch; they gladly, promptly jumped in front of me and paid for me. And if anyone said or did anything unpleasant to me, the instantly leaped to my defense. To me their constant gratitude was both awkward and amazing.

It’s really strange. Most people I know who call themselves Christians don’t seem all that grateful that Jesus gave His life to save their lives single-handedly. They rarely mention it in conversations with believers or unbelievers. Believers, let’s try harder to appreciate what Christ did for us and be overjoyed to tell others about Him!