After a few tentative comments, the room was silent.
It was a deep question to be asking young women after all.
What has Jesus Christ’s atonement done for you?
Wanting to give them the opportunity to think and to witness, I didn’t say much.
But I did ponder a great deal then and since.
How would I answer that question-not just in the abstract, but in the particulars of my life?
Because that is what that question is all about.
Not what Jesus Christ has done for the world or for God or for someone else, but for me.
I will continue to think about that, but for now:
I have felt the sorrow of disappointing God and others I love.
I have felt betrayal.
I have known the anguish of my mistakes hurting another and knowing that I could do nothing to change that.
I have felt grief and guilt and fear and injustice.
I have been misunderstood and lonely.
I have felt a longing to know more and better.
I have been hurt.
I have deeply felt my weakness and inadequacy.
I have experienced uncertainty and the frustration of repeated sin.
I have been unloving and felt unlovable.
I am intimately aware of my fallen, imperfect state.
But through the power of Jesus Christ and His atonement,
I have known forgiveness.
I have received strength and a capacity beyond my own.
I have experienced the joy of repentance and healing.
I have known surety and grace and mercy.
I have seen goodness and second chances.
I have received knowledge and courage to act.
I have experienced redemption from sin and from the Fall.
I have been motivated to try again and to trust in a wholeness that will come in time.
I have felt peace and generosity and life in abundance.
I am being incrementally transformed.
Jesus Christ, through His atonement, allows me to change and to grow, to learn and to keep trying without fear of the outcome.
He gives certainty.
Because His power can do and has done all of these things in me.
He has shown me my Father when I can’t remember His face.
Because of Him I know my worth, my purpose, and my potential, and I have been given everything that I need to realize that potential.
His atonement has shown me what true love is and what living a godlike life looks like.
Everything of value and eternal meaning in my life has been touched and formed by the power and goodness of Jesus Christ.
I am enabled
Known
Cleansed
Stretched
Lifted
Trusted
Rescued
Filled
Taught
Claimed
Healed
Transformed
Made whole
Loved
