I recently watched a movie, “A House of Dynamite”. As you might expect, this is not an uplifting movie. The plot line is this: someone fires a nuclear missile at Chicago. We don’t know who or why…..and we cannot stop it. The movies deals with how our government reacts to this unfolding catastrophe. In essence, a huge cast of imperfect people operating on imperfect information must decide whether to initiate nuclear Armageddon. All they know is that there is a very high probability that Chicago will be vaporized in 19 minutes. Even that is not certain.

The theme that runs through the movie is that mankind, in spite of our many triumphs, is operating out of our depth. We cannot solve the big problems. Often, we cannot even identify them. And yet……we forge ahead…….confident in our ability to manage the world. We build weapons that we cannot use. We engineer viruses that we cannot survive. We create waste that we cannot get rid of. We exhaust resources that we cannot replace.

“It is in your nature……to destroy yourselves”

The Terminator

We know in our heart that there can be a world where these problems are solved. We know in our heart that such a world exists. We cry out for that perfected world. But, we fail again and again to achieve it. We fail because we lack the wisdom, the self sacrifice, the integrity, the generosity, and the cooperation to build that world.

The hallmark of this perfected world is love…….and the peace that flows out of that love.

“Then, peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars”

Aquarius by the 5th Demension

Such a world once existed. It is described in the book of Genesis. Even more importantly……..such a world will exist again. That is the promise of Christ……a promise to every human soul……living and dead. If we fearlessly search our heart…….we know this to be true.

Such a world can only be the work of a being who operates on an entirely different level than we do. History teaches us that mankind is not capable of this work. Such a world can only be the work of a supernatural being.

God

Love is the essence of God
Peace flows from God’s love
Hope is what connects us to the promise of God’s Peace.
In our heart…….we know this to be true.

Without God……….there is no peace.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Jesus in John 14: 26-27, ESV

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Paul in Phillipians 4:7, ESV

The Trinity is a difficult idea for us to grasp. Three entities who are united and yet distinct.  Father…….Son……..Spirit. I doubt that during my temporal/physical life that I will ever fully understand the Trinity. 

The best tool that I can come up with is to consider the Trinity to be three faces of one entity. In practice, we relate to the Trinity by interacting with one of these faces: sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, and sometimes the Spirit……but always the Trinity.

In the Old Testament, we are repeatedly told to “fear God”…….that is to fear the Father. We are never told to fear the Son. We are never told to fear the Spirit. Many teachers of Christianity tell us that this usage of the word fear really means to honor and respect God, the Father. Call me a literalist…….but I believe that fear means fear. The key to understanding the idea of fearing the Father hinges on the face of the Trinity that the Father represents.  The post this week is my attempt to understand the three faces of the Trinity…….the Godhead.

Each face of the Trinity embodies the entirety of the Godhead. But, each face of the Trinity also emphasizes one facet of the Trinity.

The Father represents justice. He is the repository of everything that is right. There is no wrongness in the Father. Anything that is wrong is cast away from the Father. But, in my daily walk, I am wrong. Every day, over and over, I think and do things that are unrighteous. Every day, I try……and fail to meet the Father’s standards of righteousness. My unrighteousness separates me from the Father. This is the very definition of sin. The Father’s justice requires my separation from his righteousness. So…..do I fear the Father? Absolutely. I fear the separation that my sin creates between me and the Father’s justice. If the Father and his justice were the only face of the Trinity, my death would be terrifying. 

But, then, there is the Son…..Jesus.

Jesus is the face of the Trinity that represents mercy. At the cross, Jesus suffered to pay the price for my sin…….your’s too. This act is his gift to mankind. This voluntary act erases the separation from the Trinity that our sin has created…….at least for those who recognize and accept it. This rapproachment is summarized by the encounter between Jesus and an adulterous woman whom he had just rescued from justice by stoning.


Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

John 8:10-11, ESV 


Jesus paid a horrible price to purchase for us the most valuable gift we will ever receive. This act is the very definition of mercy.

And finally, the Spirit, arguably the most difficult face of the Trinity to get a handle on.

For those of us who accept it, the Spirit lives inside of us. The Spirit is the repository of the knowledge of good and evil. It is the source of wisdom to navigate between good and evil. It is our connection with the justice, the mercy, and the love that is the Trinity. For those of us who have accepted the divinity of Jesus and the Father, we experience the wisdom and knowledge of the Spirit. We may not always act on that wisdom and knowledge.  But, we know it. For those of us who do not accept the divinity of Jesus and the Father……is it any wonder that you lack the wisdom and knowledge of the Spirit? Is it any wonder that you fill that void with your own limited wisdom and knowledge……..wisdom and knowledge that is heavily contaminated by your appetites? In our daily life, the wisdom and knowledge of the Spirit is essential to our success……..indeed to our survival. 

Each face of the Trinity is essential.  Together, they constitute a whole.  You cannot understand Christianity until you deal with all three. 


according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

1 Peter 1:2, ESV  

What is the most valuable commodity in the universe? There are as many opinions as there are people. Perhaps the best way to judge the value of something for a given person is to consider what they do. This is a far more reliable indicator than what they say. Each of us has resources. Some of us have a lot. Some of us have very little. But, for all of us, the universe of what we want is much bigger than the universe of what we have in terms of resources. This is a simple truth that every child learns before kindergarten. In spite of what the influencers tell us……..we cannot “have it all”.

And so we prioritize. Some things we pursue. Other things we let go. For each of us, at the top of the pyramid of our desires, there is one thing that we would trade everything else for. For each of us, that thing is the most valuable commodity in the universe. For each of us, that thing is our primary appetite.

A brief and incomplete list of candidates:

Career
Money
Prestige
Power
A big house
A nice car
Land
A rare collectible
Sex
Recreational drugs/alcohol…….addiction
Thrills

If you sort through the people that you have encountered, you can probably name someone who is pursuing something on this list. In my life, I have spent time pursuing several of these things……..not all of them……..but some.

Because of our limited resources and the reality of prioritization, there are things that we neglect in order to pursue our primary appetite. In my life, I went through a phase that I think of as my “empire building phase.” During this phase, I doggedly pursued some of the things at the top of the list. In the process, I didn’t take care of my family as well as I should have. From where I stand today at age 73, I can see that my primary appetite was misplaced. The “most valuable thing” was not on my list…….not even on my radar. I succeeded in my career. But, my family paid a price…….and so did I.

I am now convinced that the most valuable commodity in the universe……the thing that I failed to pursue for years………is love.

This should come as no surprise. Each of us is created in the image of God. Love is God’s defining characteristic. The need to love and be loved is written on our hearts. It was put there by our creator. Any time that we give some other appetite priority over love, we do harm. We harm others. We harm ourselves.

It is no accident that the core commands of the Bible and of Christianity deal with love:

Love God

Love everyone else

Even within the category of love, we must prioritize.

First….love God

Then……love everyone else

It is not hard to find, among Christians, someone who has given other ideas…….other commands……..priority over love.

But, the appetites of others are not my primary concern. I will deal with those appetites after I have perfected love in my life.

And I have a long way to go.

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus summarizing Christianity in Mathew 22: 37-40, ESV

“What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary; go and learn it”

Hillel, the elder

I’m a pretty busy guy……for my age. I do a lot of things. I make things. This summer, I am learning how to make wooden buckets. For better or worse, I take some pride in what I have built, directly or indirectly, over the years. I say, “I did that.” We, mankind writ large, are busy too. We have built large cities. We have gone to the moon. For better or worse, we, too, are proud of what we have built. We tend to look at our surroundings with pride, and we say, “We did that.”

Today is beginning, as most of my days do, with some quiet time……time for prayer and meditation. BTW……I highly recommend it. It’s a little past 5 am. I am sitting on the back porch watching the day begin. There are trees: oak, walnut, sassafras, maple, and dozens more that I cannot even name. There is grass, a sky full of stars, a few patchy clouds, and more bugs, birds, and critters than I can count.

If I am being honest, I look out at all of this life unfolding before me and I realize something sobering:

I didn’t do that. You didn’t do that. We didn’t do that.

If I compiled a list of the most important and most treasured things in my world and wrote it down in two columns, the list might look like this:

“I did that”

My house and the stuff in it
My job
My hobbies

“I didn’t do that”

My wife
My sons
My granddaughters
The plants and animals in my yard
The sun, moon, and stars
The food I eat
The water I drink
The air I breathe

You get the point.

I exist in an amazing universe. The vast majority of this universe, the most important parts of it, are things that “I didn’t do”. At best, I am an innocent bystander. At worst, I am an interloper………a latecomer who has usurped a world that I did not create.

And yet, I am proud.

How do I reconcile my pride as a human being with a world, the largest and most important parts of which I did not create?

How do I deal with the column titled, “I didn’t do that.”

There are two possibilities:

This awesome world was created by someone else.

This awesome world just happened…….accidentally.

We cannot know with absolute certainty which of these possibilities is true. In either case, we have no justification for our pride. I have no justification for my pride.

But, there is another, more important, level to this dichotomy. This is the question of “who is in charge here.”

If there is an external creator, then it’s his world…..he is in charge.

If the universe just happened, accidentally, then there is nobody in charge. In practice, the world, which we call “our world,” is governed by a committee………a committee of 8 or 9 billion people, each with their own agenda.

And that is where human governance stands today. About half of us accept the concept of a creator, at least intellectually…….a creator who has expectations…….a creator who is in charge…….a creator who is sovereign. The other half accepts the concept of the “universal accident” and governance by committee. The result of this is that, we govern by committee. We may give the creationists seats on the committee. But, we are slowly, but surely, marginalizing them. We call this “separation of church and state”. This idea has become a pillar of global governance.

Creation has been effectively run out of our government. It is being run out of our schools. It is being run out of commerce. When was the last time you heard a Christmas carol or watched a Christmas themed show…….that had anything to do with Christ? I effect, our government, acting on our corporate behalf, has told our creator……”you have no place here”, ……..”we will run things as we see fit.”

This trend toward anti-creationism is a long-term trend. I do not see it reversing in the foreseeable future.

I wonder how God feels about it.

I wonder what God will do about it.

As for me…..I will enjoy the trees, grass and stars.

And I will remind myself:

I didn’t do that.

And I will praise the creator…….my creator…….the guy who actually did all of this.

In the beginning, God created…..

Genesis 1:1, ESV

This week, Cindy is dealing with the death of a lifelong friend. We are in our 70’s and this is getting to be a common experience. I am beginning to reflect on life……..my life…….and on what it means…….or in a few years……..what it meant. I am beginning to see that the most important metric of my life…….and yours is meaning. So……..what is “meaning?”

It turns out that the definition of a “meaningful life” is surprisingly hard to pin down. We go through our day working at hundreds of tasks, each of which has a short-term goal. But, these short-term goals do not determine the worth of our life. That is determined by the totality of our life. When we add it all up at the end, we want to have lived a meaningful life.

To explore meaning as it applies to our lives, I want to contrast two lives…….Solomon……..and Jesus.

Solomon

He was a son of King David and was himself king of Israel. He was arguably the most successful human being to ever live. He was the embodiment of wisdom. He had power. He had lots of stuff. He had hundreds of wives and thousands of children. He was respected the world over. People came from all over just to sit at his feet. But, when you look closely, you realize that every metric that he used to weigh the successes of his life was limited to the temporal/physical world. He was a Jew. He built the temple in Jerusalem. He believed in God. But, if you look closely…….he didn’t have much in the way of a relationship……..a conversation……with God. At the end of his life, he wrote a review assessing the quality of his life. That review is the book of Ecclesiastes. If Solomon had given his life a rating in “stars” at the end of Ecclesiastes………it would be a one-star review.

“meaningless…….a chasing after the wind”

Something here just doesn’t add up.

Jesus

He, too, was a descendant of David…….at least in the legal terms of the day. He spent most of his life as a tradesman. He studied the Torah. He accumulated nothing except what he carried on his person. He had no wife. He had no children. But he did have a following. By the metrics of the temporal/physical world, he was not a successful man. But, what he did have was an intimate, minute by minute, relationship with God……the father……his father. After his death, he returned to his father and became united with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the Trinity. And there is the key difference between Jesus and Solomon. The meaningfulness of Jesus’s life flows out of his relationship with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. The meaningfulness of Jesus’s life is measured by the metrics of the spiritual realm.

So……how does this apply to me……..in my search for meaning in my life?

I can run my life using the metrics of Solomon. In point of fact…….I have. It’s been fun. I have stuff. But meaningfulness? When I breathe my last breath, will my temporal/physical successes translate into meaningfulness? I have grave doubts.

Or

I can try to run my life using the metrics of the spiritual realm:

Talk to God
Listen to the Father
Listen to the Holy Spirit
Serve God
Give God priority over my appetites
In a word……..love……..love God and everyone else

I am certain that if I can do these things, at least some of the time, I will be able to say to myself………as I breathe my last breath:

My life had meaning.

the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless !”

Solomon, looking back at his temporal life, Ecclesiastes 12:7-8 NIV

God wants you……..with him……..in paradise……..forever.

When?

Only he knows…….Jesus didn’t know…….I certainly don’t.

Why?

Because he loves you with a parental love. He wants you to be safe, happy, and fulfilled. Not only that……like any parent……he wants to share those things with you.

How?

Now, we are getting down to the heart of the matter. God designed us in his image. There are parts of our nature that are a dim reflection of God’s nature. Parenthood is a great example. As parents, we want a strong relationship with our children. The basis of that parent child relationship is worth exploring.

There are three general foundations that a parent/child relationship can be built on………three foundations that our relationship with God can be built on:

Love:

This is intangible. At its heart, it is a loving relationship that is based on caring for, giving to, and sacrificing for the person you love. At its best, the giving in this relationship is a two-way street. This is the ideal. Every parent hopes for a relationship on this level with their child. A good parent gives…….and hopes that the love will be returned. A good child gives……..and hopes that the love will be returned. I believe that God wants this kind of relationship with me……with you. This was how God set up the Garden of Eden. This is what God had in mind for Adam and Eve. This is what God wants from you and me. This is God’s “plan A”.

Providence:

A providential relationship is an incomplete version of a loving relationship. A parent gives love and support to their child. The child appreciates the value of the gifts. The child recognizes his dependency on his parent. The child does the things that are necessary to maintain the relationship in order to get what they need. The relationship is purely transactional. There is love on the parental side……..but love is not the prime motivation on the child’s side. The parent misses out on the child’s love. The child misses out too……..not because she is not loved……..but because she fails to love. God is disappointed…….man is unfulfilled. This is God’s “plan B”

Punishment:

This is the bottom rung of the ladder. The parent still loves…… still provides. But, the child actively rejects the relationship. This is extraordinarily painful for the parent. I believe that God feels pain when one of his children rejects him. God feels pain when his sacrificial love is not reciprocated……..even worse when his child refuses to even recognize him. This brings up the problem……..of hell. Hell is God’s punishment for those who deny his existence…….for those who reject him. Hell is God replying to man’s rejection of God by returning the rejection. Hell is bad……..very bad. So…..what does this have to do with relationship? Once you are in hell, there is no relationship with God…….that boat has sailed. In terms of relationship, it is the threat of hell that is the issue. It is possible to have a relationship with God based primarily on the threat of hell. You can go to church, sing the songs, take communion, even tithe. But, if you shake the pastor’s hand and walk out satisfied that you have bought off hell for another week, you are missing out. Maybe this “plan C” will keep you out of hell. But, you are cheating yourself…….and you are cheating God out of a much richer relationship.

God may settle for “plan B” or “plan C”. But; God wants you to want “plan A”.

Theres no misery in not being loved,
only in not loving

Rod McKuen

Come Lord Jesus!

This is the most basic prayer in the Bible. It occurs at the end of the book of Revelation in a brief conversation between Jesus and John. It is at once, either the most comprehensively hopeful prayer in Christianity or the most terrifying. What is curious is that you rarely hear a Christian pray this foundational prayer. I have rarely heard it in a worship service in the thousands that I have attended.

Come Lord Jesus!

There are two ways to consider this prayer. This first and by far the most common is to petition Jesus to come to us and fix a specific problem. This morning, my prayer included a prayer for peace in the Middle East and in Ukraine…….for wisdom for our leaders. This is a hopeful prayer…….but a fairly small one when you consider the big picture. This prayer recognizes the sovereignty and power of Jesus. But, at its core, it is a prayer for Jesus to fix an isolated problem that is disrupting our life…….the way we want to run it. We hear a similar request often……at the grocery.

“Clean up…….on aisle six.”

This prayer hands a small specific problem over to Jesus, leaving us in charge of running the world. It is an attempt to preserve our global sovereignty by bringing in a consultant and delegating a particular job to him. In essence, we box Jesus up where he cannot compromise our sovereignty. Then we drag him out to fix something and then shove him back into his box.

The second way to see this prayer is rarely prayed. It takes a global perspective. This is a prayer for Jesus to return in his full sovereignty. It is a prayer for Jesus to return in the ” second coming”. This is a big deal. After creation, it will be the most consequential event in human history. It will include the tribulation, the rapture, a millennium of peace, and the final solution to the problem of Satan. But, the most important part of this event will be the end of human sovereignty and the full institution of the sovereignty of God. We are promised that this will be wonderful……..paradise…….for believers. For non-believers…….not so much. I will return to the second coming for non-believers in a future post. For now, I will consider the second coming for believers.

We will lay it all……everything…….at the feet of Jesus: our hopes, our dreams, our plans, our appetites. We will return control of the world, and more importantly, of our lives to God. This is where that control has always belonged anyway. For the strongest of Christians, this will be anticipated as a joyous event. For the vast majority of Christians, we will approach it with some degree of trepidation. For the secular humanist, this is something absolutely terrifying. It is so terrifying that they use the only defense available……..they deny the existence of God.

And so…….this simple prayer becomes a litmus test for the strength, even the validity, of the only tool we have to gain entry to paradise.

Our faith.

Do I believe in the existence of God…….in his power……in his justice……in his mercy……….and, ultimately, in his absolute sovereignty? Do I believe in his promises,

Or do I confine him to the little jobs.

“Cleanup on aisle six.”

“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.

Revelation 22: 16-21, ESV

We run our lives as a series of transitions. We go to work for a boss. In return, the boss gives us a paycheck. We feed the parking meter. In return, we get a spot to park our car. This goes on all day long.

But there is one transaction that stands out. It stands out because it involves an exchange of commodities that are priceless. This is the central transaction of the Christian faith. It undergirds our entire reason for living…….for being. This transaction defines us as Christians. This transaction dictates our eternal fate.

The background behind this transaction centers on who controls an extraordinarily valuable commodity and who wants that commodity. It is classic “supply and demand” at the highest level of the marketplace. Because of the interplay of supply and demand, the commodities involved in this transaction are the most valuable commodities in the universe.

So……who demands……..who supplies……..and what are the priceless commodities?

We are used to dealing with physical commodities in our temporal world: food, shelter, clothing, etc. But, the simple reality is that our time in this physical world is severely limited. The spiritual world is eternal. In the light of eternity, our time in the physical/temporal world is the blink of an eye. We need to consider supply, demand, and commodities in an eternal framework.

The cast of characters is very small……..God and us.

What commodity does each of us bring to the table?

God brings paradise…….eternal joy in his presence. There is nothing more valuable in the universe. Can you think of anything in your world that you would sacrifice eternal joy in order to acquire? Can you name any commodity that you would sacrifice eternal joy…….that you would accept eternal pain…….in order to acquire? Eternal joy, in the presence of our creator is the most valuable commodity in creation.

God controls the supply of the commodity of eternal joy……..we supply the demand.

We are the other side of the transaction. We are tiny. We have very little to offer. At least, that is how it looks from where we stand…….trapped in time. But, this is where it gets interesting. There is a commodity that we have complete control over. Furthermore, it is a commodity that God demands…….from us. Because of the nature of the commodity……..and because of God’s nature, God will not force……extort……this commodity from us. It must be given freely.

The commodity? Faith.

We control the supply of the commodity of faith………God supplies the demand.

And there it is. The most important, most valuable transaction in our brief lifetime:

We freely give God our faith……..our belief…….our trust…..our love. God freely gives us paradise……..forgiveness………justification. Each side of the transaction is a free will offering. Each side of the transaction costs the giver very little. And yet, on each side, the receiver gets something that they place extreme…….even unlimited……..value on.

Each side receives something that they did not earn…….something that they cannot or will not compell.

I can either give God my faith…….or withhold it.

God can either give me eternal joy……paradise……or withhold it.

And that transaction……..is the beating heart of Christianity. What amazes me is that so many good smart people refuse the transaction.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Jesus describing the cost of our side of the transaction, Matthew 11: 28-30, ESV

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then, in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Jesus describing the value of God’s side of the transaction, Matthew 13:44, ESV

I am 73 years old. For most of my life, I have enjoyed good health. I have been blessed with strength, intelligence, even with an occasional outburst of wisdom. And I am grateful to God……my creator. But, I am getting old. My strength, health, and even my little bit of wisdom are fading. Just about every day, there is a job that I once would have done, that I now farm out to someone younger…….stronger…….more capable. I am beginning to think about finding someone to care for me…….when I am no longer capable of managing the most basic tasks.

Clearly, I am past my physical and mental peak. And, the final outcome of my decline will be my death. This is the story of life in our temporal world……not just mine……but yours as well…….even if you are a 20 year old Olympic champion:

Birth……the rise to power……..the loss of power…….death.

The secular humanist will tell you that this is the normal deterioration of any living organism. Your telomeres are failing. Your DNA is degrading. Your body’s natural repair mechanisms are falling behind in their race against the ravages of time. And all of this is true.

But, I believe that there is more to it. I believe that the slow physical and mental decline that we all experience…….unless we die “before our time”………is a part of God’s plan. We begin as children……..completely helpless, completely powerless, ignorant, completely dependent. We rise to adulthood when we enjoy power, even a degree of sovereignty. We then get old, weak, befuddled, and powerless. We wind up utterly dependent. And then we die.

We tend to view the years of power and sovereignty as the “normal” years and the years of dependency as anomalies. But, that really isn’t true.

Years ago, I was in the middle of a heated argument with my oldest son. He called me out on some point…….he said, “what do you think you are trying to do?” I replied, “I’m just trying to get control of the situation”. He said, “what you really mean is ‘the illusion of control”.

Smart guy.

I sometimes reflect on where both of us were on the “Bell curve” of wisdom on that particular day.

When you consider eternity under God’s sovereignty, it is clear to me that dependency, childhood, is the normal state of mankind. Our brief foray into the realm of power and control is the anomaly. It is clear to me that the decrepitude of old age…….our “second childhood”……..is the beginning of our transition to the spiritual world. This is a world where God……our creator……is absolutely sovereign and we are completely dependent…….childlike. God will not ask us how we think things should be run. He will not ask us where we want to go today or what we want for breakfast. God will decide.

This dependency grates against our sensibilities as adult humans.

But; if we are honest, aren’t we absolutely dependent…….on God…..right now?

After you subtract out all of the problems that arise from other humans exercising their power…….their attempts at sovereignty………the dependency of paradise under a loving creator………begins to look very good………heavenly.

This perspective sheds an entirely new light on the aches and pains that are my reality…….at 73.

I am simply returning to my baseline…….completely dependent on a sovereign creator……..a sovereign creator who loves me and cares for me……..who always has.

I hope to enter paradise with a childlike humility. This will inform my relationship with my creator………my eternity.

“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus explaining human dependency, Matthew 18:3-4, ESV

“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Jesus explaining God’s sovereignty, John 21:18-29, ESV

I am a Christian…….a 73 year old Christian.

I believe in the Trinity…….Father, Son, and Spirit.

I believe in heaven, hell, and eternal life.

I believe in God’s promise of eternal life in paradise for me specifically.

Sounds fabulous.

So…….why do I worry about death? Because I do worry about it……..and so do you.

If you are not a Christian, if you are a secular humanist, then your worry is absolutely justified. You will die and one of two things will happen:

The lights will just go out.

You will find yourself in an eternal burning hell.

I get this…….the secular humanist’s fear of death is absolutely logical and completely justified. It is the Christian’s fear of death, my fear of death, that I struggle with.

Why does my death worry me?

The Bible doesn’t give me a lot of guidance as to what things will be like…….after I die. The descriptions of paradise are nice…..but largely symbolic. It seems safe to assume that spending eternity in a spiritual world will be very different from spending a few decades in a temporal world. Whatever is troubling me must lie in that difference.

The first thing that worries me is my ignorance. I understand very little about paradise. In fact, I lack the intellectual tools to deal with it. Eternity means that time either does not exist……or is irrelevant. How do you plan your day without the framework of time? Space, as well, may be entirely different. Does paradise have borders? The only explanation Jesus offers us is to compare marriage in paradise to marriage in this world. He pretty much says, “it just doesn’t work that way”. About all that I can know is that paradise is the creation of a God who loves me. Paradise is a gift to me……unearned…….a manifestation of God’s grace. That should be enough.

And yet, I worry.

There must be more to the problem.

The second thing that worries me is that I will be powerless……or nearly so…….in the presence of my creator. Maybe I will have a job. Maybe I will have a few responsibilities. But, I will not be in control. I have spent 73 years controlling…….manipulating my temporal environment. I’ve done some things well……others…..not so much. But, it is safe to say that I have enjoyed the power. I am proud. I am pretty sure that in paradise, my power and my pride will be drastically reduced.

Ignorant and powerless. That, I think, sums up what worries me about my death. In paradise, I will be like a child. I will be cared for. I will be loved. I will be satisfied. I will be fulfilled. But………I will not be in charge. I will have what I have really needed all along…….relationship with my creator. What I will not have is all of the things that I have pursued in this temporal world. What I will not have is the power and control that I have enjoyed during my temporal life.

My death will be the end of my kingdom. My kingdom will be replaced by the fulfillment of God’s plan for me……his kingdom.

The solution to my worry?

I must firmly place my trust in my creator. I will trust his love for me. I will trust God’s plan for me.

I will trust that being a servant in God’s eternal kingdom will be much better……… than being a sovereign in my own little kingdom.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

Paul comparing his ignorance of paradise to God’s knowledge,
2 Corinthians 12:2-4, ESV