I can tell you that God has repeatedly ‘raised me up’ in the middle of the innumerable situations where ‘up’ had become a hope lost in the darkness of the places to which I had fallen. And while that is the miracle of my story, it sits waiting to be the reality of yours.

After enough failed attempts to rescue myself, I finally realized that I am my own worst first responder.

Whatever the depth of our darkness, God navigated it eons before it was dark. And whatever the duration of our nights, God was there long before it ever turned to night. Therefore, despite our frequent feelings to the contrary, there is no place we might be where God was not lovingly waiting for us an eternity before we got there.

The greatest threat that I need to be rescued from is myself. Everything comes a lot easier after that.

What are we actually saving ourselves from, other than the failed notion that we can save ourselves?

Really it’s about God saving me from myself, for if that doesn’t happen ‘first’ then there is no ‘second’.

When I find a man sold out to God, I have found a rare thing. And I have discovered that God is in the business of creating rare things, of which I someday hope to be one so that I might help you become one as well.

I don’t want to praise myself. Rather, I want to praise the thing that saves me from myself. Hence there is God.

I can confidently state that the greatest rescues in my life have occurred when I’ve been saved from myself.