Glimpses of the Eternal
(Read Matthew 6)
The last time I went camping, our entire neighborhood trekked out to the mountains for a weekend of fun, sun, and outdoor relaxation. Our daughter still loves to hike and camp but neither our son nor my wife and I no longer care for the camping part. Friday’s weather was perfect. The sun-baked mountains glowed orange with the setting sun on our way west to the mountains. The next day however, should have been a warning to us of what would follow.
We spent most of the day playing in the lake at the state park. Splashing around in the stifling humidity of a July weekend. There were no clouds as the sun rose, but they eventually drifted in as the day wore on. When you’re camping, you normally eat dinner early, have some social time around a fire, and turn in early.
It wasn’t long after dark, that the rain started. After an hour or so, my wife and I mumbled to each other, “This won’t continue much longer.” For some reason, we had our son, his friend, our daughter, and her friend with us in our tent with many alcoves. After a few more hours, the rain sounded like a freight train. “It can’t rain any harder,” my wife and I groaned to each other. Sometime about 3 or 4 in the morning, we realized that the outer sheet of our tent (the fly sheet) were so wet and heavy that it was laying on top of the tent itself. We had water dripping from above us and pooling up below us.
I shined a flashlight in the direction of our kids and their friends and noticed that our son’s friend was lying in a pool of water. His face and head were soaking wet, we were surprised he didn’t need a snorkel. Why didn’t you say anything, we asked him? He said, “I don’t know, I didn’t know what else we could do.”
My son knew his friend since nursery school. They went to elementary, middle, and high school together. They ran Cross Country together for four years. It was during their senior year that their coach gave them a gift that changed their earthly and heavenly lives.
“Coach was pivotal in leading me to faith,” my son’s friend (A) said. “I never had any in-depth conversations with him about faith, I was more drawn to him by the way he communicated with people and the way he lived his life.” Midway through their senior year, their coach sponsored both kids to a “Chrysalis flight” — a three-day retreat focused on spiritual formation or transformation for teenagers.
(A) came from a loving family and always felt loved and cared for but admitted to me, “The first time I really had an AHA moment was during the Chrysalis event. It clarified why all the people that God put in my life were in fact, in my life. (A) continued, “I recognized lots of pieces coming together in my life.”
“Love (Agapē) the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37).
My friend then revealed what was probably the pivotal moment from his transformational weekend. “I experienced Agapē in it’s purest form. It was absolute, unconditional love,” he added. Receiving this all-encompassing love is so overwhelming, it’s almost indescribable. I have also had the pleasure of being on the receiving end of Agapē love before, and I would have to imagine the kind of love we will see in Heaven will be of this type. “At that time, my spiritual life changed from just going through the motions.” The change in him was external too. I saw it. “Chrysalis changed the trajectory of my life.”
Do you leave room for God during your highs and lows?
This young man is very humble and understated. He’s incredibly bright and gifted, good at so many things from guitar, to running, to frisbee, but he rarely takes personal credit when things go his way. “I try to beware of finding too much joy in my own successes,” he claimed. “It’s fleeting.” As believers, it’s important to be like him and avoid the trappings of being too enamored with the highs in life. “There is always room for God in my highs and my lows.” What do you do if you get too self-congratulatory, I asked. “I pray,” he answered.
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:31-34
“I lived half-way across the country for 2 long and lonely years. I moved there not knowing anyone. For 2 years, I had no substantial friendships. I had joined a church and small group but I still didn’t feel any major connections.” He went through a lot during these low years. Not only was he isolated but he also lost three grandparents. His vulnerability was clearly evident in our conversation. I have known him for more than 25 years and not once have I ever heard him complain or blame anyone. But I could tell this isolation hit him deeply.
“It was a really lonely, low time. God didn’t put me here, I chose this for myself.” Once again, I was so impressed with his resolve. “I realized that I had to lean on my faith to push through. My faith also reminded me that it would not be a permanent thing.” Mic drop.
“Why Matthew 6:33? You are such a chill, calm, cool guy. You don’t seem like a worrier,” I pressed.
“I might be like a duck,” he chuckled. “Calm on top, but feet moving a lot under water,” he replied. “I actually do worry and experience anxiety.” (A) went on to elaborate on how his faith gives him calm, “It reminds me that I don’t have to worry. I have this confidence that things will work out.”
By his answers alone, I know what comes first in my friend’s life. While he might experience anxiety or worry, he doesn’t submit to it. Jesus tells us that He has set his steadfast love on us from eternity past through eternity to come. He has always been, and always will be, more devoted to our good than we could ever hope or imagine.
One such example of God’s love in my friend’s life is exemplified in his marriage and beautiful baby daughter. God blesses each of us differently at different times. It wasn’t always a bed of roses for my friend. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes). “I had gone through a bad relationship before and the pain and frustration as bad as it was, finally turned to good. God led us to each other.”
“My marriage is an example of God’s glory and blessings,” he confided. “After our wedding, we stole away for a quiet moment where we were so overjoyed, overwhelmed with God’s love.” His description of this reminded me of the cup runneth over metaphor. “Our marriage and our baby, exemplify glimpses of the eternal rather than the temporal.” God is good.
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
John 8:31-33
Many people are familiar with the more well-known passage from John 13:6, but not as many of us pay attention to the above passage John 8:32 which uncovers what it means to truly follow Christ. Why this passage, I asked? “Because it is sentiment for what was revealed to me.” Truth leads to freedom. Through Him we are free from sin, free from condemnation, and free from death. Jesus declared liberty to us as captives to sin.
The people answered Jesus in John’s passage, just like we might, that they are already free. As offspring of Abraham, they claimed to be free of sin, or too good to be enslaved by sin. This reminds me of times when I hear people say, well they’re good people, they must be free from sin. They are focusing on certain aspects of freedom, but not what Jesus had in mind.
I am taken aback by my friend’s commitment to his faith and Jesus’ cross. There is no uncertainty regarding his search for truth and his receipt of our Savior’s grace.
What gives you hope? Without hesitation, he said, “Obviously, it’s Jesus. There is always joy to be found in my life, my marriage, my baby, in other people, and even in difficult people, but we’re all made in the same image of God. There is good in all of us,” he added, “on earth, and the littlest moments.” There is a lot of hope in that statement.
(A) is one of those believers who connects and respects people. He is not one to try to forcibly change people or knock people over the head with his beliefs. While in Europe (wearing a cross), he was asked how as a Christian, he could be drinking alcohol. Through a civil conversation, he shared that real Jesus followers have options and it’s not really about following rules as it about recognizing who is first. I would add that Christianity is not about rules, traditions, or habits, it’s about a relationship. A relationship with Jesus.
My friend shows others that he is a believer of Christ by who he is. My friend has truth, light, and love in his heart. He always has. He might not speak up when his head is under 4 inches of water while camping, but he will point to our Savior if you ask him where he goes for strength, for love, and for hope. If we want to bring others to Jesus, then we need to act like Jesus.
“This doesn’t get any easier, it just gets better.”
Legendary Cross Country coach
Key Applications:
- Who introduced you to a relationship with Jesus Christ? Have you ever acknowledged her/him? If you haven’t already, send that person a card, an email, text or call them. If they are no longer with us, pray for them. Thank God that He worked them into your life. Thank God that He called you to Him.
- Tim Keller wrote:
How Religion Works: If I obey, then God will love and accept me.
The Gospel: I’m loved and accepted, therefore I wish to obey.
God loved and chose us first. We did nothing to earn this. Serve Christ, obey, and show God you’re grateful for His love. - The four types of Christian love include: Storge – empathy bond, Philia – friend bond, Eros – romantic love, and Agape – unconditional “God” love. Read Matthew 22. Which love do you see in this chapter? Have you experienced this in your life? Show this love to others as God asked us to.
Where else in your life can you live out the teachings of Christ? Look for next week’s Devotion.