Tag Archives: life

Moving forward

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clockStill struggling to keep up with the pace of life. Guess I’m getting older.

I was with the Stockdale Church of Christ last Sunday. Not just me… Carolina, Daniel and Andrea went with me, along with Daniel’s girlfriend. The church had invited me to do a Herald of Truth report.

I discovered it to be a bit awkward giving a formal presentation to people that I know so well. I’m thrilled that they now know more about what I do, but it felt like a funny way of going about it.

I’m doing a class on “Angels and Demons” tonight at our home church (University Church of Christ). Nice to be included in our summer series. Somebody asked me if the class was about Dan Brown’s book. Ha! Actually, I was offered several topics, and this was #2 on my priority list. It’s a drier study than most I do, but hopefully it will be good for those that that are there.

Life continues on… how’s your summer going?

The value of human life

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cemeteryScenario 1: “Q: What’s sandy all over and glows in the dark? A: Iran, if they harm even one of the hostages.” It was 1980. Iran was holding American citizens hostage. Americans! We were high school seniors. Tough guys. If there were a war, we’d be the ones drafted. We made jokes about the possibility of dropping nuclear weapons on Iran and killing millions of people.

Scenario 2: It was ACU basketball’s finest hour. Norman Archibald announced the games in the style of a big-time college announcer. Moody Coliseum would be rocking, especially Section F. The fans in Section F were there to see basketball, but they were especially there to have a good time. They had a wide repertoire of antics: pulling out newspapers to read while opposing players shot free throws, jingling their keys and chanting “Go start the bus!” when ACU was about to win, taunting opposing players when they committed fouls. One favorite was the ceremonial hanging of the referee: raising a doll dressed like an official with a noose around his neck. I found it great fun, until the day my friend Joel Solliday shared his concern: “They’re representing the taking of a human life!”

Scenario 3: Pew Research Report on their Values Survey (2007):

Nearly a quarter of American adults (23%) say they mostly (14%) or completely (9%) agree that American lives are worth more than the lives of people in other countries according to the most recent Pew Social Values Survey; those most likely to take this view include white men (30%), persons ages 18-29 (29%) and self-identified conservative Republicans (28%).

Scenario 4: Mary Elizabeth Williams writes about abortion:

All life is not equal. That’s a difficult thing for liberals like me to talk about, lest we wind up looking like death-panel-loving, kill-your-grandma-and-your-precious-baby storm troopers. Yet a fetus can be a human life without having the same rights as the woman in whose body it resides. She’s the boss. Her life and what is right for her circumstances and her health should automatically trump the rights of the non-autonomous entity inside of her. Always.

The basic problem behind many of today’s hot-button issues is that we don’t value human life.

Scenario 5:

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” (Romans 5:6–10)

photo from Morguefile.com

Ecclesiastes: Discovering the joie de vivre

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There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)

It’s the most famous passage from Ecclesiastes. It’s a wonderful example of the power of Hebrew poetry, poetry that depends not on rhyme but on repetition of ideas. Wave after wave of ideas here leave us with no doubt: there is time for everything under the sun. It’s a human point of view; all of these things find their place here on earth.

The second half of the chapter moves to a different perspective. Notice how many times God is referred to in the next section? The message is one that is common to Ecclesiastes: “That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.” (Ecclesiastes 3:13) Again and again Ecclesiastes says: life is fleeting, so enjoy it while it lasts. Be happy. Do good. God has made life as beautiful as it is fleeting.

Jay Abels pointed out to me this week that in the Old Testament men drew near to God not through fasting but through eating and drinking “in His presence.” Ecclesiastes emphasizes the same thing. “Time and tide wait for no man.” Men need to learn to enjoy the time that God has given them. “So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?” (Ecclesiastes 3:22) The processes of life will move forward, men will do good and evil, time and chance will happen to them all. Ecclesiastes says: Learn to enjoy life.

How to make death equal gain

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formula“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)

I love that verse. Paul, a prisoner in a Roman prison, waiting to know if he would be executed or not, writes to encourage his brothers in Philippi. He tells them that he doesn’t know for sure what the verdict will be, but he wants them to know that it doesn’t matter. To him, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

We can think of it as an algebra expression:

If x = life,
then death = gain

What can we substitute for x to make the expression true? Money? Power? Pleasure? Family? Work? No, none of those things work. How can we make death equal gain? By centering our life on Christ. If we try to substitute in any of the things of this world, the formula fails.

If our lives our built around Christ, we need have no fear of death. It ends up being gain for us!

Preaching your own funeral

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 viewThere were two brothers in a small town who were the richest men in town. They were also the meanest and most immoral men in town. When one of them died, the other went to the preacher of the local church and asked him to do the funeral. He said that he would give the church $25,000 if the preacher would say that his brother was a saint. “But I can’t do that!” said the preacher, “Everyone knows what kind of man your brother was.” But the more he thought about it, he realized that the church really needed that money. So the day of the funeral he got up and said, “This man was a lying, cheating, stealing, wicked old man. But next to his brother, he was a saint.”

Someday, when we’re gone, somebody is going to have to stand up and say a few words about us and about our lives. When they stand up to talk about us, will it be an easy task or a hard one? Will they struggle to find something good to say or will they struggle to choose between all of the uplifting stories told of your life?

I remember when I was a student at Abilene Christian University, there was a preacher who preached a funeral sermon that became famous. It was in all the papers across the nation. Jim Dotson was the preacher at Brookwood Way Church of Christ in Mansfield, Ohio. His sermon was videotaped and can still be viewed at the ACU library. Dotson’s sermon did not become famous because of its content nor because of the outstanding delivery (although, given the circumstances, the delivery was remarkable). Dotson’s funeral sermon became famous because he preached his own funeral. Dying of cancer, he videotaped the sermon that would be presented at his own funeral. He spoke about the Christian’s victory over death.

It’s a remarkable thing to preach your own funeral. Well, it is and it isn’t. It’s remarkable to videotape yourself speaking so that everyone hears the exact words that you wanted them to hear. But the fact is, we all preach our own funeral sermons. We preach them by the way we live. No matter what the preacher says at the service itself, our lives will leave behind their own testimony, for good or for bad.

So what does your sermon sound like so far? Is it full of jokes and stories, but little substance? Is it a shining example of what everyone would like their life to be? Or, to borrow a phrase from a calendar I saw, is the main purpose of your life to serve as a warning for others?

Make someone’s job a little easier. Don’t make then hunt and scrounge for something good to say when the end comes. Don’t make it hard for them to find words of comfort for those left behind. Live such a life that your funeral will be a celebration of triumph, a joyous remembrance of a life well lived.

 Start working on your sermon today…