“Wait, what is this post doing here? I thought this was a web design company!”

Well, you would be right. This (Hillside Web Design) is my company that I am lucky enough to run. However, I wouldn’t be fully honest with any of my clients (or my competitors) if I didn’t clearly and emphatically communicate what drives everything I do - Jesus Christ. If that topic doesn’t appeal to you, I’m afraid you’ll find this post very boring. If you’re willing to read further, however, I hope you’ll see value as your read. Mainly, I want to explain the why behind me, my work, my life. Let me explain.

💬 Explain Yourself!

I, Alex Seeley, the Owner/Operator of Hillside, have been saved by Jesus. What does this mean? Well, it means that I believe a few things happened:

1. 🌎 God made everything, and he wants relationship with his creation

• Just as a house requires a builder, because it had a beginning, so does the Universe. I believe God made creation stunningly beautiful, and he set his image on human beings in particular. His deepest heart is love for his creation, and every living human was created to live in a relationship with Him.

2. 💔 Our sin separates us from God

• When I say sin, I simply mean “where we’ve missed the mark”. God is able to set the rules for how we are to live in His universe, and we have all fallen short of those rules (eg. We have all lied, stolen, been disrespectful, etc). Since God is a just judge, he must punish our wrongdoing, just as a good judge punishes lawbreaking. In other words, sin separates us from God. This is our chief problem as human beings in the world.

3. ⚖️ Our good deed’s don’t get rid of what we’ve done wrong

• It doesn’t matter how many green lights I have run in my lifetime - once I run a red light (and get caught), I am fined for the crime I committed. All my other green lights weren’t in the discussion when I was fined for running the red light, because a just system doesn’t cover over bad deeds with good deeds. In the same way, even if we see ourselves as “good enough” to get into heaven, this won’t change the fact that our bad deeds need to be punished in some measure. We are separated from God, and we can’t do anything about it! What can we do?!

4. ✝️ Jesus died to pay for my sin - aka, he took the hell punishment that I deserve

• Let’s say I ran that red light I mentioned earlier, and I didn’t pay up. Maybe let’s say I didn’t show up to my court date and was popped in the county jail for my $50 fine. “I don’t have the money”, I say, “What can I do to get out of this?”. Now, what if a friend of mine rolls up to the courthouse and offers to pay the $50 ticket on my behalf. He says, “I know Alex can’t pay his ticket to get free - I’d like to pay the fine on his account.” The police wouldn’t keep me there - I would be free! Because my fine was paid! I the same way, the hell punishment we have stored up for ourselves is demanding our life - but Jesus took that hell punishment on himself when he died on the cross.

If Jesus took 100% of my hell punishment, how much is left for me? None!

5. 🎉 Anyone can have their sins paid for by believing in Jesus

• It’s great that I can be saved, but what about everyone else? Well, God said in his word that powerful and famous verse: “For God so loved the word that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.” Everyone, anyone, all people that hear this message can choose to believe in Jesus and have their hell punishment paid for. Believing in Jesus simply means trusting that Jesus is the only way you’ll get out of hell, because he paid for your sins by dying on the cross! In the same way that you trust in a chair to not collapse on you, trust that Jesus is enough to get you into heaven. “Jesus, I know you’re the only way that I can be made right with God, so I trust that you died for my sins - I lay my eternal destiny on you, asking you to do the work for me.”

6. 🙏 We now live for God because of what he did for us

• I can’t do anything to save myself, but Jesus did it for me! So, how do I live? Do I just go out and live however I want, dishonoring how God wants me to live my life because he took away all my punishment? By no means! Instead, because of what he has done for me, I am motivated to live for him forever. If I were saved by a fireman from a burning building, my instinct would be to thank him, not punch him. In the same way, I want to thank God for what he has done for me by living for him.

What does this have to do with Hillside?

All of these beliefs make me who I am - they drive my every decision. I cannot do anything without considering how Jesus wants me to live. Now, let me be clear, I am not always doing what God wants me to do. I so often fall short, but it is still something I cannot ignore. I cannot avoid Jesus’ desires for how I should live because he is the one who gives me life itself! I have to honor him, I get to honor him, I’m most happy when my life in aligning with what he wants.

Hillside Web Design is something that cannot be removed from that part of me.

With every business decision, blog post, client interaction, cold call (yuck), or whatever it might be; I am conducting all of my business in the light of what Jesus has done for me. You, whether you be a client or not, need to know that’s who I am.

As I disclose this information about me and my business, I have two reactions within myself:

1. I am terrified: because I know I will never operate good enough to make God’s reputation look as good to others as he actually is. In other words, I will sin, fall short, do poorly. Being a sinner saved by grace, I risk bringing shame upon the name of Jesus by falling short, which is too horrible for me to express.

2. I am invigorated: because I know he’s changed my life and given me purpose - to love him and make him known. This blog post is just another part in how he has called me to live my life - to love him and make him known. I want to obey, and I believe this post is a valuable part of that mission.

✨ Wrapping up

That’s me. I am saved by Jesus, and I want so desperately for you to be saved too. I want every interaction you have will Hillside to reflect God’s creativity, his majesty, his love, his kindness, his character, his worth - I want you to see a shimmer of God reflected in how I do business here.

• Where I do well, please see that it is God alone who gives me that ability.
• Where I do poorly, please see that my failures do not reflect God’s character… except that he is the type of God who takes those with massive failures and makes them his loved, adopted, precious child.

If you’ve heard about Jesus before and rejected him, I’m not under any impression that this blog post will change your mind. I am not able to change anyone’s mind or anyone’s heart. However, I beg you, if you haven’t considered Jesus, or you are open to exploring, please listen to what I am saying: Jesus made a way for us to all be reconciled with him. Take him up on his offer, and simply trust in him.

If you trust in Jesus, I can say with 100% certainty that it will be the best thing you ever do. God has saved me from so much more than I can write about here, and I know he can do that for you too.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” - Jesus - Matthew 7:7-8

Of course, I’d really like it if you got in contact with me to build you a website… but I would REALLY LOVE IT if you got in touch with me to talk more about Jesus. It’s all that’s really important in the end, so feel free to reach out to chat about it any time. 😊