It is hard to believe we are nearly 10 years into the new millennium. It seems only moments ago we were worried about Y2K. To say “time is fleeing away” seems like such an understatement. I just turned 50 this year and it appears, in some ways, that I’ve spent my entire life preparing for what I want to be when I grow up.
To be honest, I’m not really sure what “to be grown up” means.
Wrong View
This cryptic goal of “what I should be when I grow up” seems to always be somewhere, just ahead of me. Rarely does it ever feel as though I have arrived. I seem to be always planning, striving, posturing and figuring as to whether I will fulfill what God has called me to do before I die.
Death can seem to be the end of the road, or the termination point, when I am thinking like this. From this earthly perspective, the goal is for me to be all I can be in this life before I die. And the sooner I figure out my life’s calling, am actually doing it, and the further it is from my day of death, the better off I will be, so the thinking goes.
Better View
However, that kind of thinking is missing the mark. The assumption is that death is the termination point, when the truth actually is that there is no termination point for any human. You and I will live forever! Truly, this life is a journey and the goals I attain along the way are not the end. And all my goals should serve as part of the process of desiring, learning, knowing, and enjoying God.
All of my earthly life is preparation for the main event, which is not in this life at all. The reason I struggle at times is because I can be myopic in my thinking, fretting about the brevity of this earthly life, as though that is all there is. Of course, this is not true. There is no need to live frenetically, like a hamster on a wheel, trying to cram this life full to the brim because this is all there is.
Part of the pressure I have placed on myself is because I can easily forget that this life on earth is a journey to the real thing rather than being the real thing. The truth is that I am getting myself ready in this life for the real thing, which is the privilege to see and be with the Savior. It is him and only him that matters. The goal is Christ, to be found in Him. All other goals, other than me being in Christ and making his reputation great, are secondary and some of them are even of no value.
Application Questions
- Do you live as a pilgrim and stranger on this earth or a camper with deep tent stakes?
- Are you tempted to scratch and claw for things in this life, that really do not matter?
- Do you believe you are really complete in Christ and are fully resting in him today?
- Do you believe you would be complete if you had Christ plus something or someone else?
- Do the things in your life draw you closer to God and for the most part are designed to make his name great?
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