So, you’re picking up this book for the first time, with what is either hunger or skepticism. Maybe even hunger and skepticism, if we are being honest.

Maybe you know Jesus a little bit. Maybe you know Him a lot. Possibly, you have never met Jesus at all. And you are probably doing what it is that I do every single time that I pick up a book and begin to read the introduction, thinking to myself, Is this book for me?

It’s a legitimate question. If you’re anything like me, you’re busy. No, not the type of busy that some people seem to wear as a badge of honor, but truly, your margins are low.

I have the privilege of being a husband to a tremendous wife and a dad to two amazingly beautiful girls, both of whom are under the age of three. As I write this, we are also expecting our third child, which we have learned is a boy (pray for us). Alongside these wonderful blessings that God has given to me to steward, I have the honor and responsibility of leading a young, growing church here in Dallas.

I tell you all of that to help this next statement make more sense: I don’t have a lot of time to give to things that don’t yield much return in my life. It’s very likely that as you are reading this, you and I might be in the same boat, with low time margins and looking for high  return on investment) wherever it is that we choose to spend our extra time. With that being said, I want you to know that I honor and respect your time and am grateful that you would spend a portion of one of your most valuable resources reading the contents of this book and taking this journey with me.

But let me just level with you from the jump. There is nothing that you can ever invest in learning more about Jesus and your relationship with Him that will yield a fruitless return in your life. Any investment made in Jesus is high yield.

Jesus says in Matthew 6:20, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Jesus wants us to understand that while earthly investments will fail and fade, every eternal investment made into our soul and relationship with Him is completely secure.

At the most, this book will transform your entire world. For you, the reader, I hope and pray that is the case. But at the least, as you finish this book, you will do so having become just a little more grounded in your relationship with Jesus and your knowledge of who He is. Which, in my opinion, nothing in this life is more valuable than that.

I love being a husband, a dad, and a pastor. But none of these things are ever more valuable than my relationship with Jesus. As a matter of fact, when I invest in my relationship with Jesus as the primary focus of my life, I actually become a better spouse, parent, and pastor.

Yes. Following Jesus, improves all areas of my life.

And just as knowing Jesus will improve your life as a spouse, parent, or leader… knowing Jesus will also improve every other area in your life if you meet Him and accept His invitation to follow Him.

I say all of this to say that no matter what, if you read and apply the contents of this book, and as a result choose to apply the biblical principles therein, everything else in your life will grow as a result.

Maybe you’re trying to figure out if this Jesus thing is for you. Maybe you’re a seasoned good ol’ saint of God who’s just trying to learn more about Him. Maybe you’ve been away from God for a while and you’re trying to navigate your way through the maze of life right back to Jesus. Either way, no matter what place in life it is that you find yourself picking up this book, there is one thing to be assured of… there is something in you that’s longing for, even if only just a little bit, to meet Jesus.

That in and of itself is enough reason not to put down this book.

What if He is who He says He is? What if He is who they say He is? What if, in the next few moments of reading this book, somehow you see Him in a whole new light that you never have before?

My friend, being that we are talking about the God of the universe, that’s quite a strong what if.

If you are approaching this book with apprehension or skepticism, let me attempt to help you overcome that for a moment if I can and explain to you why I am so convinced that this book is for you.

No, it’s not because I wrote it. But because this Jesus of whom I am writing about… the God who came to earth in human flesh, lived a sinless life, died an unjust death on a wooden cross, who rose from the dead three days later, and is now seated on the throne of God in Heaven… did all of that… just to get a chance to meet you and me.

If that has even the slightest possibility of being true—which I personally am convinced with every fiber of my being that it is—then this book is surely worth your time.

I wrote this book for our church. And what started out as an attempt to be a short devotional journey to help people meet Jesus quickly turned into this book that you are holding right now.

I’ll be honest with you. I don’t like to write. Judge me. It’s okay. I forgive you.

As a matter of fact, I have a story that my wife has grown weary of hearing (which I am including in this book just for her) that will make you feel really sorry for me. One day, as a sweet little second grader who allegedly refused to write in school (I say allegedly because I am pretty sure I was framed), my mother decided to continue the tradition of letting me open one Christmas gift a few weeks early, before the official arrival of the holiday.

It was the skates. THE skates.

The beautiful hockey ice skates that I had been eyeing for weeks at the sporting goods resale shop down the road. Lightly used, polished to perfection, perfectly broken in. I was ecstatic! That is until Mom said, “Now since you won’t write, we are going to get in the car and take them back.”

BRUTAL! T.K.O.

To this day, I can’t stand hockey.

If you love hockey, I’m sorry. Please have mercy on me. Some wounds just never heal.

But apparently, while my dreams of becoming the next great Mike Modano or Wayne Gretzky may have been crushed, I did start writing some, even if begrudgingly.

However, while I still don’t enjoy writing, I do enjoy Jesus, and if there is one thing that I will gladly write about, it is Him.

Usually, writing feels like a chore for me, something that you do in high school or college because you kind of have to do it if you want to pass the class. Maybe you’re one of those people who really does like to write, of whom, on this particular subject, I totally do not relate to but will gladly admire your position.

While writing for me is usually not my go-to plan for a good time, as I sat down at my iMac in the back room of our war zone house, with babies swinging from the ceiling (if you’ve had two under two, you get it) to write what was my best attempt at telling you about this Jesus who has captivated my life… I simply could not stop writing.

In fact, for as many days as it took to write this, I have desired to do nothing more than let the deluge of words that have come pouring into my heart come crashing out to you through the words on these pages.

I am captivated by Jesus.

Let me ask you… What if Jesus captivated your life, too?

Maybe He already has. I tell our church this from time to time, and I will repeat it here with you also… We usually don’t have a hard time talking about what we love.

You probably can’t get thirty minutes into conversation with me and not find out that I am an avid Southern Methodist University football fan.

Why? Because I love it. And we tend to talk a lot about the things that we love.

Give me a dead moment in conversation and I’m going for it! All in. The storylines, the things you never needed to know about SMU football until you met me. You’re getting it all. That is until my wife squeezes my knee under the table. Then, I will relent.

I’m kidding, but I can’t say this has never happened before.

This is kind of how this book came about.

This is just me, a young pastor from Dallas, talking about what he loves. And it is my hope and prayer for you that as you read this book, you are led to an encounter with Jesus that causes you to fall in love with Him too.

I feel like I need to say this at the outset of our journey together. That no matter what stage of life you are in, know this… there is not one person walking God's green earth who knows everything about the subject of this book. Certainly not me. As a matter of fact, the more I learn about Jesus, the more I realize how much more there is to learn about Him.

Growing in knowledge of the God of the universe is humbling. Or at least it should be.

I’ve never related to or understood people who try to communicate what they’ve learned about Jesus from a place of pride. The fact that we get to know anything about someone so powerful, majestic, and awesome should deeply humble all of us.

To be honest, spiritual pride is a signal that one probably knows about Jesus, but that they may not have spent a lot of time with Him personally in a while.

It’s one thing to know about Jesus. It’s an entirely different thing to know Him.

It takes a lifetime to get to know Jesus, and yet even then, Scripture tells us that “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

That verse simply means that while we can see a lot about God… we can't see it all.

None of us are “professional” Jesus knowers. As a matter of fact, if you think you are, I have news for you.

Whatever it is that has driven you to pick up this book, I want to commend you for doing so. My heart is not to presume that I have anything special to say, except for what Jesus has helped me to know about Him through relationship, always in alignment with, and upon the foundation on His Word.

Whatever God has given to me, my hope is to translate it to you in the pages of this book the best that I can. 

My heartbeat is to come alongside you and to walk with you over the next couple of chapters as we explore what it means to truly meet Jesus.

Let me be clear. While this book contains a lot of information about Jesus, it is certainly not exhaustive. This book is like the entryway of a house, so please don’t stop here at the entrance when there’s so much more house to see if you just keep walking with Him.