A Note From The Editor: August 7th, 2015

By Sarah Komisky

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

– Matthew 11:28 (NIV)

Almost three years ago, I didn’t walk around with an obscure mound on my back, but I did carry a burden just as big as the fictitious character Christian from the classic novel, Pilgrims Progress. While the weight and pain it caused is difficult to remember, the remembrance of that burden is important. Why you may ask? Because where and Who it led me to.

Growing up in a loving, Christian home, I lived understanding who Jesus was but along the way somehow misunderstood the reason why He came and why I needed Him. In other words, I had the head knowledge of the Bible and upbringing in the church, but never experienced a true conversion. So, I inevitably missed the concept of a rather simple but unfortunately misunderstood term known as grace – the unmerited favor of God. Instead, I lived working to attain God’s favor and love by what I did and did not do. Living a very moralistic lifestyle, I considered myself “good” but wrestled with an inner restlessness of soul that sent me searching for what I believed had to be more.

So, like my fictitious counterpart, I began on my journey of grace wondering with longing where it could be found. Tangled up in religion and perfectionism, I was prone to depression and anxiety that left me crippled and broken. Priding myself in my performance, I was blinded to all the ways I was wrong and therefore the peace, joy, grace, abundant life, freedom, relationship, and salvation I looked for could not come about until I recognized I was wrong – my smallest offense being enough to miss the mark and separating me from God. I was sinner in desperate need of a Savior.

Looking back, life looks at a lot like Pilgrims Progress. It was filled with people who came into my path for a reason. Many people I cherish and am blessed to call my loved ones today. People who stuck by me when I had nothing to give and without them, my story would not be what it is now. They were the ones picked by God to lead me to a good place – to the cross where I could finally rest and find acceptance in what Jesus did for me as I laid my burdens of sin down. I could discover Jesus was enough. What He did for me at the cross was enough and I could rest knowing I was enough in His eyes.

Experiencing the life I always wanted with the One I was looking for, I never was the same. So like Christian, I set on a new path of my Christian life telling all of the One I love but who first loved me. The One who saved me. The One who loosened the burden I carried and set me free. He is the One I adore, the One who marked my life with such beauty and purity, I had to go out and share it.

So, I guess this is Sarah’s progress. A wanderer who found the Lover of her soul on a crooked path met with grace. This is the soil in which Marked Ministry grows. May it lead you down a good path if you haven’t found it already.