jesus in your heart

“Put a screw in your pocket and put Jesus in your heart. Break your pact with the devil and do it from the start.”

Remembering that stupid and nonsensical song we had made up as teenagers, I laid a screw in Sean’s casket. My best friend was dead, but was now with the Lord.

Even though Sean didn’t put Jesus in his heart and break his pact with the devil until he was an adult, he did do it prior to dying in October of 2008. In fact, his friendship and witness was what compelled me to eventually follow Christ as well.

I miss my friend more than you can know—I think about him almost every day. While I wish the whole grieving process would speed up, I’m comforted to know he is with the Lord as we speak. The same place where I’m going someday. And the same place where you’re going someday if you have Jesus in your heart.

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.”1

While there’s so much we could say about these verses, notice the first sentence from this quote from the Apostle Paul: “To die is gain.” No matter how good things here on earth may be, being with the Lord in heaven is always better. Always.

And did you notice the last sentence? When we “depart”—that is, die as human beings—we go to “be with Christ.”

So where’s Sean? He’s with the Lord. His earthly body and a screw from my garage may be in the ground, but his soul is with Jesus.

While I still miss him, I like that thought. A lot. He’s more than okay, and someday I’ll see him again.

How cool is that?

“Put a screw in your pocket and put Jesus in your heart.”

1  Philippians 1:21-23