Day 57.

I once said something really dumb in a sermon. I would be the only one who remembers it, but I do. In the course of reflecting on my life I said that I don’t need to pray the part in Lord’s prayer “give us our daily bread.” I went on to explain that my bread is sure – I have a weekly wage plus that of my wife. I was driving the latest commodore and was paying of a newly acquire mortgage. My boys were in a private school and I had very secure employment. The sort of employment that would only be terminated for things like sexual infidelity or financial corruption. I then recounted how my faith has never been tested. I have never had to trust in God for my next meal and my financial future seemed secure.

He who inhabits eternity and who knows the “end from the beginning” because he is outside time, must have smiled an anthropomorphic smile as I said that. If we new our own futures, then we probably wouldn’t choose to go there. The smooth tarmac of my passage was about to change.

When we finally get to look back on this world, we will see it all, in the light of eternity, as just one bad night in an inconvenient hotel.

Yes! As my father said, “Life is a question that demands an answer.” He was, unfortunately, looking for answers in the wrong places, as do many people chasing the butterfly of eternity. If Calvary cannot move us to decide then God has no other resource because all heaven was poured out there. The prophet Isaiah once cried out “Is it nothing to all you who pass by!” That’s how I feel often with Calvary, as I struggle to present this wonderful message to people that cross my path. The greatest gift in the universe and it remains so hard to give away! What are you going to do with this man called Christ? Don’t cast aside the greatest decision of life to pursue false hopes and dreams that are just like the illusive butterfly of happiness.

History is fast drawing to a close. Is your life like driftwood, swept onto the shores of time to be gathered by the returning tide and lost in the ocean of eternity forever? Or will you be among the group that stands on the sea of glass singing the song of the redeemed “Glory to the Lamb.” Soon time will turn on its hinge and become eternity! Where will you be?

The short cut to understanding the meaning of life is to sit at the feet of Jesus, listen to His words, accept His free offer (even if you don’t understand it) and enter through the door of salvation opened by His grace.

Life is the place and time where we make our decisions for eternity, eternity has no clock, decisions belong to time and the time is now!

I am a pilgrim and a sojourner on this planet – like the patriarchs of Hebrews 11 my hope is elsewhere. However, that does not mean that traumas aren’t painful, and the thorns and thistles of life don’t sting. They do.