“I am the life” – John 14:6
Hello Life:
It is a pleasure to talk to you today because it means I still have your spark
within me. You are such an interesting entity, and that is what caused me
to invite you over to a chat. I have many questions, and I have made many
observations about you through the years that makes this encounter with
you stimulating because I hope to settle some of my curiosities.
I’ve heard many discuss your quality. They call it ‘the quality of life.’ Some
are fortunate that they live life to the fullest without many bumps in the road
when it comes to health and well-being. I think, for the most part, those are
the ones who take you for granted. Others, less fortunate, suffer from a
quality of Life but tend to be most thankful when they have a good day
versus a challenging one. I admit though, from the outset, we are not very
good at judging what is best for us, so we must leave that in the hands of
the One who knows all things. From my viewpoint I might think I’m having a
bad day and life is a wreck; from His viewpoint, it might be the best day I’ve
had on record because I was able to make the most progress.
One of the most fascinating things about you is an innate desire to cling to
you. It rests within all of us. We will struggle to the last breath hoping for
just one more. We will put ourselves through the misery of having such
things as a chemotherapy cocktail injected into our veins just so we might
have six more months. No matter our age, or income, good health, or ill
health, happy or sad, we tend to never want to leave this world.
It is hard for us to understand those who do decide to murder you with their
own hand by committing suicide. It is not only short-circuiting God’s plan for
us, but it is most certainly an egregious sin. Some even believe it is a sure
ticket to eternal hell if one commits self-murder, but that is not supported
Biblically by any verse. On the other hand, there are many verses that tell
us that nothing in death can separate us from the love of God found in
Jesus Christ (Romans 8:39). I don’t condone it; I don’t encourage it, but I
do understand that people feel like they have no other choice, and are
suffering from such deep hurts and depressions they see that as escape
hatch. It is unfortunate because it is a permanent solution to a temporary
problem. Besides it sentences to all who love them to a lifetime of grief,
guilt, sorrow, and despair. It is a very selfish act. No one should ever
smother you, no matter the circumstances. It isn’t our right to do so.
We love you, Life! We don’t love everything that happens within your
boundaries. But the sheer joy of having you as a daily companion gives us
boundless opportunities to affect the world for good. Through your avenue
of opportunity, we learn important lessons: loving God and our neighbor,
growing in grace and in knowledge, experiencing circumstances that
challenges our faith and helps us grow. We develop friendships and
relationships that are beneficial to our earthly existence. We are able to
enjoy the wonders of nature, feel the pleasure of joy, learn about comfort in
times of grief, and just have a good time! We learn new things almost every
day. The time you ration to us, day by day, should teach us. Years of
experience should give us wisdom. One phrase that has caught on that
You must enjoy is when people say: “Life is good!”
If there is anything about you that is bad, we have no one to blame but
ourselves. We made some ill-advised choices soon after you were birthed
within us. We rebelled. We tried to dig out our own path but found what we
were digging was our own grave. We are responsible for inviting your
nemesis into the world - Death. And, I intend to have him over soon to have
a heart-to-heart talk with him as I am with you. I have a lot things I need to
say to him.
It must have been strange for you to have an arch-enemy. It wasn’t in the
original plan. But that was a risk the Creator was willing to take in order to
give us a free-will. And, frankly, we blew it. We highjacked His perfect plan.
We stained it with our blood. We left our fingerprints all over the crime so
that we have no choice but to plead guilty. We are very inept at trying to
‘get away’ with things, as you well know. You are a witness to our fiendish
actions. We drag you along everywhere we go. I’m sure it must be
frustrating to make a deposit of yourself in us while knowing, all the while,
that eventually Death would conquer us and put us in our place. I know, if I
were you, that seeing the shadow of Death creep over our faces would be
discouraging. But then, thank God, He revealed His ultimate plan to make
you Eternal! And, while there is eternal Death too, it is our choice. We can
choose Life or we can choose Death. Whatever choice we make will mark
us for eternity. At least now you have a fighting chance! And God has
promised that He will eventually terminate Death – the last enemy to be
destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26).
How about the amazing fact that having you, Life, as our eternal
companion is completely free -- at least to us! We acknowledge a price was
paid for this benefit by the Author of Life giving Himself over to the clutches
of Death so that the sin debt could be paid. It was a price too steep for us
to pay ourselves, so having a Propitiation for our sins was our only hope.
Helen Lammel said it best:
O soul are you weary and troubled
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s light for a look at the Savior
And life more abundant and free.
How exciting it must have been for you to be Incarnate in the Son of God
and for Him to announce to the world that not only could we have Life, we
could have it more abundantly! Talk about a great marketing plan! I’m
surprised that you are not stampeded with people rushing to you for such a
full and free offer of eternal Life. Along with that - the best of this temporal
Life wrapped into one package! But, alas, it shows us the state of the world
that people would rather live their own way and slowly be smothered to
death by their own sin. Oh well, they won’t be able to say they didn’t have a
choice.
I hope I have shown you all due respect. I acknowledge when I am talking
with you that I am actually talking to God. Jesus said, “I am the life” (John
14:6) and “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). John tells us
that “in him was life, and the life was the light of all men” (John 1:4). So, the
distinction is that Jesus is THE Life. We don’t equate our life with God
because that would be a reckless stance to take. But we do acknowledge
that our life comes from God.
Could you indulge me to complain just a bit? I know it’s silly, but I have to
get it off my chest. What is this deal that we have such a short life? Adam
lived 930 years! Few of us even get 10 percent of that. To use a worn-out
cliché, because it conveys in a pithy way what I want to say to you, we are
“here today; gone tomorrow.” We barely get started, and life is over! It is
like we are a ship passing in the sea. It is like our life is measured by the
length of our hand from thumb to pinky finger - a hands breath. Job said
that and I’m pretty confident he got twice as much time as we do. So, using
his scale, could we say we only get half-a-hand’s breath? The length of
time we are permitted here is like watching an airline jet scream across the
sky. It’s there. We can see it making progress. It’s on its way to a
destination, but soon it is out of sight and gone.
You are like steam coming off a pot on the stove. You are there for just a
little bit, and then you disappear. It’s like a blink of an eye. I turn around,
and I look, and 10 years have passed. I glance and my children are grown.
I turn over and it’s time to retire. I lay down to take a nap, and I don’t wake
up to this life again. Seventy years gone in a flash. How many times have
we heard, or thought, or said, ‘Where did the time go?’
But we are a wishy-washy bunch, aren’t we? For I know if it were possible
to have the amount of time the people of days of old had, we’d complain
about that too. Job said, “Man that is born of a woman is of few days and
full of trouble.” Jacob’s testimony after living nearly as twice as long as we
do said: “few and evil have the days of the years of my life been” (Genesis
49:9). A longer life, more trouble. So, let’s just leave it like it is. I’ll put my
hand over my mouth and not bring it up again. I know, you must be shaking
your head at my ruminations. I don’t blame you; I do that about myself
sometimes too. A fool is known by his much speaking!
Let me revisit the metaphor of you being like an airliner flying across the
sky. I have one more thing I’d like to add to the thought. Most all of us have
a safe take-off. We are born into this world and with God’s favor have
parents to care for us and guide us. It’s the fact that it’s a long-distance
flight that causes the problem. We have quite a way to go from the cradle
to the grave. We certainly don’t want to crash before our time. We want
treat you like a precious treasure in our lives, and not take your presence
for granted. We don’t dare boast about tomorrow; we don’t know what
today may even bring.
So, we’ll commit ourselves to making sure you get the right fuel (we will eat
right); we will make sure you have proper maintenance (sleeping,
exercise). We want to make sure that we let God set the flight plan and we
won’t interfere. We certainly don’t know how to fly this contraption. We will
behave ourselves and understand that those who come our way to assist in
the flight are there for our own good. We won’t argue with the flight
attendants! We will not take any dumb risks and try to fly upside down or do
tricks that will jeopardize our safety. This life isn’t ours. We are bought with
a price. We are hoping for safe landing to our final destination. Thank you
for taking us along for the ride! And then being our companion for all of
eternity.
© Stan Vespie 2023
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