Did you ever wonder what it would be like if you had
Judgment Day perspective today? How
would your attitudes and choices change is you could look at your present life
with benefit of knowing what you will know when you finally see Jesus
face-to-face?
John Piper, the dean of to-the-heart’s-core spirituality,
spoke to this a few years ago.
It is possible to waste your life. Few things
make me tremble more than the possibility of taking this onetime gift of life
and wasting it. Every morning when I walked into the kitchen as a boy I saw
hanging on the wall the plaque that now hangs in my living room: “Only one
life, twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” And now I am
almost 58, and the river of life is spilling over the falls of my days with
tremendous speed. More and more I smell eternity. And oh, how I want to use my
life well. It is so short and so fragile and so final. You get one chance to
live your life. And then the judgment. I speak as a father who has children
your age, and I am jealous with Jesus that they and you not waste your life.
("Don't Waste Your Life," from December 29, 2003)
It occurs to me that two things will keep us from pursuing
the quest of a Christ-focused life.
The first is settling for the average “good” Christian’s
lifestyle. We humans have an inbred need
to be part of larger cohort. While we
want to respected and admired, and we certainly want to have self respect, we
seem content with doing what the rest of the people are doing. Average, good, middle class, heartland of
America styled Christianity is admirable to a degree. Except that it takes the sharp edges out of
the Gospel. It seeks to smooth and
re-route the path that was meant to be sometimes rocky and steep, at other
times muddy and overgrown, and only occasionally smooth and straight. In other words, it takes the need for faith
and daily dependence on Christ out of
discipleship.
The second is indulging ourselves too much and disciplining
ourselves too little. Following Jesus is
not easy. It is simple. But it is not easy. Anyone who tells you differently is engaging
in sophistry. “Take up your cross and
follow me.” “The servant is not above
his master.” “In the world you will have
tribulation.” “Any man having set his
hand to the plough and looking back is not worthy of the Kingdom of God.” Those are Jesus’ words! It takes desire and disciple, passion and
persistence to follow Christ. Following
Christ cannot be done on a never-give-it-a-second-thought or
follow-when-it’s-convenient basis. It
must be done with forethought and fortitude.
It must be done by bringing our flesh into submission daily, winning the
war against self and determining to do the small things that are necessary to
advance on the path after Jesus today.
Get your eternal perspective established. Fix your eyes on Christ. and move out!
