While driving through the Conecuh National Forest in the southern corner of Covington County, you’ll find the Blue Lake Methodist Assembly Grounds.

It’s a beautiful place where church camps and other meetings are held throughout the year. I like to call it “holy ground” because of the blessings I’ve received when I attended events there.

If you’ve ever visited Blue Lake, you’ve seen something that makes this body of water unique. A pair of crosses, planted in the shoreline, face each other on opposite sides of the lake.

During the day, the 20-foot-tall crosses cast a shadow across the mirror-like surface of the water. At night, the crosses with their neon/fluorescent lights illuminate the darkness between the tall trees in the forest surrounding Blue Lake.

Evidently, the glow from the crosses is visible in the skies above Blue Lake. Several years ago electrical service was interrupted by a storm – leaving the crosses unlit for a period of time. While attending an Air Show at what is now called the South Alabama Regional Airport, the camp director met a helicopter pilot who asked about the status of the crosses.

The gentleman explained that the crosses signaled the turning around point for their pilots. The light from the crosses in the midst of the towering pines gave the aviators crucial direction for their flight pattern. It was their turning around point to head back to the base.

A week or so later, the person called, asking about the cost to repair the crosses. Then, he mailed a check to cover the amount. The crosses shined in the darkness once again.

Far from Blue Lake on a hill called Calvary, there stood a cross made of wooden beams where Jesus was crucified more than 2,000 years ago. His cross remains a beacon of hope to a lost and dying world searching for truth.

It’s where people like you and me find our turning around point. At the cross, we turn from sin and going our own way and begin following Jesus Christ who is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). A seventh century church leader has written, “How splendid the cross of Christ!  It brings life, not death; light, not darkness; paradise, not its loss.”

Like a shining light in a dark place, the cross gives us crucial direction for our lives. This turning point changes our destination from eternal destruction to eternal life.  Jesus, “the light of the world,” died so we could find forgiveness for our sins. His death paid the cost for our sins.

Have you been to the cross? A.W. Tozer once said, “The cross of Christ is the most revolutionary thing ever to appear among men.” A hymn writer expressed it this way, “There’s room at the cross for you.  Though millions have come, there’s still room for one… there’s room at the cross for you.”

Come to the cross of Christ.  Ask Jesus to forgive your sins.  Have you lost your way?  Come back to the cross of Christ. Today could be your “turning point.”

 

Jan White is an award-winning religion columnist. She can be reached at jwhite@andycable.com.