Game Over: Dying to live

Living to the full; dying to live.  Christ arose, so will we.  photo-worldpress.com

 

 

Ecclesiastes  7:4 NCV

 

Generally, death preoccupies the thoughts of the elderly or the terminally ill. We just have too much other stuff to think about. But like a veteran quarterback, we must focus on our purpose with a good feel for the play clock. Time will run out. We want to get our best plays in before it does. We want to do what any good coach tells his players—leave it all on the field. 

 

Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God. Corrie Ten Boom

 

Jesus overcame sin and death. This life that we have known will end. This perishable body will die so an imperishable one can take its place. We talk about eternal life and heaven and speculate as to what lies beyond the grave. If we have paid close attention to what God told us through the scriptures we have assurance that it is a place without evil, where our tears will be wiped away, where God dwells among men. For most of our lives these things have been considered in a sort of mystic realm. They are not. There may be mystery still to be revealed, but our life after death is anything but mystic.

We also need to remember that our life after death is real and it is real right now. God doesn’t break promises. In God’s realm, your life eternal is already accomplished. Jesus died for the sins of all mankind because God loves you. Our immortality can best be described in the very mortal words of Archie Bunker, “Case closed!”

Jesus died for us and nothing can come between us and the love of Christ. When we die, we live. Oh, how I love paradox.

 

If I discover with myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.   –C.S. Lewis

 

Let’s go to our make it count moments.

 

With eternity assured, can we see more clearly what our priorities should be in this life. the Shook’s analogy is one of booking a hotel reservation for two weeks and when you get there and don’t like the room, you pay for upgrades to the wallpaper, a bigger television, better landscaping, and all sorts of stuff that won’t matter when the two weeks is up.

How much interior decorating do we want to do with a hotel room? How much of our time, talent, and treasure do we want to spend on our hotel room known as life? 

When I travel alone, I have two things I want out of my hotel room: a good bed that I can fit in and connectivity for my computer. I need a place to work and sleep. When I travel with my wife, we may look for something nicer because I might do less work in the room and want to enjoy our time more. If I can get a no smoking room, that’s great, but I can get by on the basic for my short stay and still accomplish what I need to do.

For two summers, I spent a few weeks in the dorms at Bethel College (now Bethel University) in McKenzie, Tennessee as part of the Memphis Theological Seminary’s Program of Alternate Studies (PAS). Yes, that’s a mouthful. I bring all manner of stuff to this three week outing.

But the difference is not the duration. The difference is the stuff that I bring is to bless others. The coffee pot and really good coffee is first on the list. A printer that others can use easily is next. Snacks, office supplies, extra computer peripherals, and the like load out my pickup. I hardly do anything to my room. It’s a dorm. It will still be a dorm when I leave. It’s all about enjoying my time with and blessing my friends who are on a similar journey. 

My days are packed at Bethel—exercise, prayer, studies, shared meals, fitting my big butt into a desk designed for an anorexic 18 year old, devotions, daily worship services, and just enjoying the shared company of men and women I have grown to love and call friends. I love it. Make no mistake, when it’s over, I am so ready to sleep in a real bed again and enjoy the comforts of home, but I live as fully as I can in a room that goes mostly unnoticed.

I think that is how we might want to look at living and dying. We live all we can, blessing others while we are here, not investing much in the temporary things; but we are so ready to go when the time comes. We live without regret! We leave without regret!

Let’s look at today’s make it last for life challenges.

1.       Envision heaven. Draw a picture, take a photograph, make a collage or a sculpture that represents heaven to you. Make it as personal as you like. Then place it in a location that will remind you where you will spend eternity.

2.       In your journal or a safe place, write a scene in which you imagine meeting God in heaven for the first time. 

3.       What would you want to say to him?

4.       What would you want him to say to you?

5.       What would you want him to say to you?

6.       Spend time in prayer and share your thoughts with the most important person in your life.

7.       What eternal investment have you made this week?

8.       How much time have you spend engaged in God’s word?

9.       How much time have you invested connecting with the people who matter most to you?

10.   Set an eternal goal for yourself—something that you will do that will stand the test of time, someone in whom you will invest—and find the time to pursuit it this week.

 

 

Go to day 29 provocations.