"What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his soul? What can a man give in exchange for his soul?
(Matthew 16:26)
Having recently attended a funeral for my Grandfather, it's unique what happens within our mind, our heart, and our soul when someone we love dies. It's almost like a "reality check". It is as though in those moments we forget about the pleasureful non-sense, the itch within that drives what we do and why we do, and in turn stop to reflect on yesterday, today, and tomorrow, coming to the realization that one day "I will surely breath my last breath". Funerals are a blessing in the sense that it brings to light the most important aspects of life that we often neglect, run from, and increasingly suppress. Considerations such as "what I am living for?", "Where is this path I am traveling on leading me?", "What is my hope for living - both now and after inevitable death", "Why am I here?"; questions - I believe - that all men and woman have to face at some point in their life (which oddly enough is usually when "what we hold as reality" gets flipped upside down and we are left in a helpless, broken state of realization that I can do nothing to change what has happened and what is happening, we discover that what remains is the epiphany of truth: I am not the master of my "known" universe).
What happens next is a travesty and perhaps the greatest tragedy of them all: the Funeral ends, the epiphany fades, and we go back to "living life", driven by the shifting modes of a pleasure-seeking heart, traveling down the same path and the same tunnel that I call "my way" ... the highway whose tunnel is continually dark (sinfully confusing) and whose shadow's distract us whenever we drive by, and begin to consider, the sign's that say "no outlet", "dead end", "wrong way". Yet we don't take the leap of faith and we continue driving faster and faster past the "U Turn" exit that offers any hope of redemption and direction toward light. The greatest tragedy of all is that so many of God's creation proceed down "their way", a way without God driven by their own pursuit for happiness, understanding of knowledge, and deceitfulness of heart (pride) that does not lead to an endless hope, but rather to a hopeless end (a way with no light ... at the end of the tunnel).
So the question is: How does what I'm saying apply to you? What is important to consider and what practicality applies to your life and your circumstance, right? That is the "Big", "most important question"!
First 'food for thought' - What is your purpose for living? In what direction does 'your life's purpose' have you traveling and is their a light of Hope at the end of that tunnel??
We spend our lives working -- for relationships, for position, for status, for acceptance, for meaning (achievement), for pleasure -- but to what ends does this "work-driven" life take us?
Within the bible, only one man ever got to receive somewhat of a "genie-wish" from God ... his name was Solomon. Solomon asked for the gift of Wisdom ... wisdom he desired to rule over and serve his people justly. Perhaps the riches man who ever lived, Solomon had everything. He had power, he had status, he had monuments, he had many homes (vacation homes even), he had many wives, cattle, and slaves ... heck he even had "girls" on call just for him (intimacy with females beyond measure), and on top of all this ... he was knowledgeable ... he was "wise". Yet listen to his reflection of his "pleasure-driven", "wisdom centered" lifestyle when it came to reflecting on his life ... he said [Ecclesiastes 2:10-11, 22-26]
"I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work and this was the reward for all my labor. 11Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. 22What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. 24 A mans can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?
Notice that Solomon concludes that "apart from God their can be no satisfaction in anything we "toil to do", because apart from there being a good and gracious God, there is no hope!"**
God makes everything we do meaningless for this reason alone: Realization that there's a greater meaning and purpose to our lives that we cannot achieve. So that we will need him to provide the huge gap in our relationship to him and with him caused by the Sin in our life. I believe that God desired to reveal to us that "we" cannot save ourselves and it's not what we do that please God, but who we are (either we ARE His in Christ or we ARE NOT -our own sinful rejection and pride to "hope in me"). (Ps 89:48).
Concluding on this note: "This world and the desires of my deceitful heart will eventually pass away ... but the man who does the will of God lives forever" (1 John 2:19, Jeremiah 17:9).
The Fork in The Road: What is the will of God?? What is the Light at the end of your tunnel? How can you stop drifting and start living purposefully, labor that is not in vain?
"35Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. 36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. 38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. 39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
There is a light at the end of the tunnel and their is the right way (God's way) that leads to endless hope ...
This way can no be paved by your own doing, but by God's doing ...
God is doing a work in your heart right now and he is calling you to himself.
If you do not know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour ... all you have to do is acknowledge that you have sinned, that you need 'a way' to forgive those sins and repenting of what's behind you, you make a choice to place your faith and hope for heaven in a person, the Son of God, Jesus Christ ... who died for your sins, but more importantly was resurrected to intercede on your behalf in heaven ... becoming a living God who walks with you, who lives literally 'to love you'. If you have decided to place your hope in Jesus, you can know that God has given you his Spirit to guide you and love you today unto forever. You can know that no matter what ... you will be in heaven ... not because of what "good" you have done", but because Jesus lived, died, and was raised for you ... and there is nothing that can separate you from his love after your moment of faith, not even yourself ... no future sin, doubt, or faithlessness.
Be washed in the blood of Jesus ... and start living out your destiny ... traveling down a tunnel that promises a glorious hope and light called heaven. We can have victory from sin's grip and judgement today, but only through Jesus Christ ... only by faith in Him.
Please contact me if you have placed your faith in the Lord ... I would love to show you "how Great is our God and his amazing Grace, Love, and Faithfulness. :)
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