Life is short.
Another year has passed. Where did it go? It's already been 4 years since Y2K.can you remember the chaos? It's like it was yesterday. We spent years anticipating that change in the calendar and now 4 years separate us from that time. I celebrated my sixth wedding anniversary with my wife this year. Those 6 years went like the blink of an eye. although my wife might not describe those years quite like that. This year I also turned 30. I am now one of them. 30 always seemed so far off but now it's here. Time flies. Life is short. Life is also fragile.
Last week I went to the children's floor at the University Hospital to visit Sara Pogoda. Sara is gonna be fine, by the way. But things were uncertain for a while. It hit me again how fragile life is. It struck me how inappropriate it was to see children stuck in those beds looking at an uncertain future. Life is fragile. Based on statistics released by the CIA, in 2003 245,000 people died in Canada. Throughout the world, another person dies every 1.78 seconds. 6400 people will have died during this service. 56 Million people died this year worldwide. According to 2003 Canadian statistics, a fair forecast for 2004 indicates that in a church our size, 9 people will die in the upcoming year (that would be 3 from this service). Life is short and fragile.
In our culture we avoid these thoughts. We do all we can to steer away from the subject. We'd rather numb ourselves with busyness, entertainment or any # of escapes. A longer look at the brevity of life will sober us up. It's when we've come to grips with the inevitable that we begin asking ourselves the big questions: like whether or not there's any meaning attached to our lives. We wonder if we're making a dent in this short life. What purpose do we carry?
Around 6 months ago a friend of mine re-introduced me to Psalm 90. It's a Psalm that generally gets air time only in distinct seasons of life. Primarily, if you've heard this scripture read out loud, it would have been at a funeral. It speaks directly about the brevity of life. It's an especially sobering Psalm for those of us living in North America where we do everything we can to not only avoid death, but avoid talking about it. This Psalm is set up like a sandwich. At the beginning, and then at the end, it speaks of God eternal. God is acknowledged as majestic, full of splendor and everlasting in glory. The outside of the sandwich has great appeal. The inside, on the other hand, does not sell well. The inside is about us. The inside describes what all of us fear about ourselves. It tells us that life is short. Not only that, it describes us as people who run the risk of going through life without meaning, without purpose, without making a dent. It describes life as a troubling blip on the radar. The middle of this sandwich stands in stark contrast to the outsides. While God stretches his glory from everlasting to everlasting, we briefly show up for some sorrow and trouble and wither away without so much as a footnote. Most of us can accept that life comes with sorrow and trouble but there isn't one of us who would say it's ok if our life had no meaning or consequence.
We have a dilemma: Life is short and we are in danger of living our lives without meaning.
Facing this dilemma often results in despair or desperation or perspective. 3 of you will die this year. 10 or 15 of you will grieve the loss of someone very close to you. What did that do: despair, desperation or perspective? Moses was the one who wrote Psalm 90 - it's the oldest of all Psalms. He begins by describing God with colorful, adorning words. It feels inspiring. Then he turns his attention on humankind and his words become gray and bleak. He talks about life being sorrow and trouble and wasting away and ending with a moan. It sounds like TS Elliot's poem, "The Hollow Man: This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper." It sounds a lot like Moses felt despair. Then, in the middle of this Psalm Moses throws up a hail mary of sorts, crying out to God, "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." It's a cry for perspective.
Around 8 years ago, on a sitcom called Seinfeld, one it's characters, Elaine starting dating this guy who was a swimmer. As you may know, it's advantageous for swimmers to shave their heads so as to have as little as possible slowing them down. After a few dates she was at her boyfriends' house looking at some old pictures of him and saw that before he had shaved his head, he had a good head of hair. To her, in fact, it was a great head of hair. And she became obsessed with the hair that could be. So after enough pleading and prodding, he agreed to grow his hair back. But several weeks into re-growing they saw something that frightened them. It had been years since he last had hair and it seemed as if maybe his once thick head of hair wasn't in such great shape. but it was too early to tell how bad things really were. They didn't know what to do. Then Elaine remembered where she could go for direction. Her friend George, a man bald for many years - a professional in baldness, you could say - would know exactly what they were dealing with. So Elaine's boyfriend set up an appointment with George. George had him sit down on a chair and then he began the inspection. From every vantage point George inspected this man's head, noting every pattern, every follicle or lack there of. The boyfriend sat on the chair feeling anxious. He kept asking George what he was finding. Finally, George finished. ready to reveal this man's fate. "14 months", he said. "14 months until what?" the boyfriend replied. "You have 14 months before you look like me." The boyfriend was in shock. He didn't know what to do. So he asked George, his new mentor what he should do. George responded with passion. "What should you do?" "Live Dammit!! Live like you've never lived before! Because after 14 months life will never be the same."
"Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."
Philosopher L.C. Francois once said that a life lived with perspective does not presume on the future, nor does it miss the present - rather, it sees life in light of eternity. Are we living our lives in their fullness?
I have one very simple example of a life lived with perspective. This example comes from a letter I read a few months back: a letter written by an 83 year-old woman to her friend Bertha. I'll read the gist of it:
Dear Bertha, I'm reading more and dusting less. I'm sitting in the yard and admiring the view without fussing about the weeds in the garden. I'm not 'saving' anything; we use our good china and crystal for every special event such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped or the first Amaryllis Blossom. I wear my good blazer to the market. I'm not saving my good perfume for special parties, but wearing it for clerks in the hardware store and tellers at the bank. Words like 'Someday' and 'one of these days' are losing their grip on my vocabulary.if it's worth doing, it's worth doing now.
She goes on to write about telling her loved ones that she loves them, saying sorry for wrongs she does, and telling herself that every day is special - every minute and every breath is a gift from God.
Understanding that life is short and fragile can lead to desperation, despair or perspective. Moses was asking for perspective when he asked God to help him # his days. when he asked for a heart of wisdom. But then he asked for more.
Accepting that life is short and fragile is one thing. This gets us half way there. But we still find ourselves in a dilemma. We are still in danger of living our lives without meaning. Moses knew this too. Psalm 90 sets the table, it brings focus into our lives so that we are in the right spot to live a meaningful life - Moses ends his Psalm with this last cry. He says to God: "establish the work of our hands for us - yes establish the work of our hands."
Throughout this Psalm we are contrasted with God. He is eternal. We are temporary. He is perfectly good. We are tainted by sin. He opens his mouth and goodness spills out with titanic effect. And we are in danger of living and dieing without making a dent - That's our dilemma.
God seems to be the exact opposite of our dilemma. Meaning spills out of him. Derek Kidner said this about our dilemma: In Psalm 90, God can be seen as the answer to, not just the antithesis to our brevity of life. I'll say that again: God is the answer to, not just the antithesis to our brevity of life. This means that God is more of an answer to our dilemma than he is the opposite of it. This means that our dilemma is resolved when our lives join his life. This is why Moses cried to God that God would establish the work of his hands.
The question, then, is, how do we join God in this? How do we ensure that our lives carry meaning and are characterized by meaning? How can we make sure our story doesn't end when our hearts stop beating. How can we make sure the things we do each day don't whither at the end of each day? How do we establish our steps and spread meaning through our hands?
When I was in Hawaii a number of years ago I experienced something you don't forget. I experienced the pull of a riptide. If you've ever experienced this you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. You can be swimming along the shore, enjoying the warm water when all of a sudden you'll start being pulled out to sea. The instructions for dealing with a riptide are simple. Don't try to swim straight into the shore because you won't make it. The pull of this tide is too strong for the best of swimmers. They say to swim sideways until you get out of it. As a flatlander, this freaked me out a little. I couldn't see this thing even though it was powerful enough to pull me several hundred feet. After encountering one of these I spoke with one of the lifeguards. He told me that these and other currents are all over the ocean. He explained that beyond a certain point on this particular island there was an ocean current that sweeps by Hawaii and then flows on to Alaska. This caught my attention. I had no desire to go to Alaska - especially that way. When you look at the ocean from above or below, you can't see a current like that. You just see water. You can't see this powerful stream running through the ocean. But if you threw a couple thousand life jackets into the middle of that current you'd see it. You'd see a long line of orange making it's way to Alaska.
When God created humankind, the Bible says he created us in his image. This idea has meant many things to many people. I agree with a guy named Klaus Westermann who understands this to mean that we are created as God's counterparts - to image God is to mirror God. It is reasonable then, that we can only image God - reflect him - when we are turned towards him. There is a God-current running through each of us that holds the essence of God. And when we live as we were made to live, we reflect the essence of who he is and meaning spills out of us.
I have run into strangers throughout my life who have known by looking at me that I am my mother's son. Even more than that, they recognize me by mother's family. They'll walk up to me and insist that I'm from this family. It messes with me every time. I hardly see the resemblance but these people who don't know me - but do know my relatives - they see it right away. There is this stream, this current of my mother's family running through me.
One of the interesting things about being recognized as one from my mother's family is the way I am treated by these people who recognize me. Based on my extended family, people immediately have expectations about what I'm like. This could be good or bad depending. But my mom's family have a strong quality about them. They value people very much. And so, when people assume that I'm a part of this great family they trust me as one who values them - as one who cares about people and loves life. Once this family current is recognized in me, I immediately have this reputable voice in their life, which would normally take years to build through relationship.
There's also a God-current running through each of us. And like that powerful ocean current, it's almost impossible to detect unless we highlight it. But once we do, it will immediately become recognizable and meaningful. This current resonates deep within people. It strikes a cord. If you see it in someone else, you'll trust them. You're more likely to ask this kind of person to be the guardian of your kids.
Making this God-current visible in our lives is the answer to our dilemma. it's the secret to a life filled with meaning. When the essence of God comes through in you, you too will spill over with meaning and power.
If you've ever done a bio or a profile on yourself, you've had to express the essentials of who you are - what it is that makes you, you. Well, if God had a profile, I think it would be Phil. 2:5-11. I believe this short passage contains the heart of God. It reveals what makes him tick. It unveils the essence of our creator. And for us - humankind - created in his image, it reveals the most powerful family characteristic running through us. It puts a finger on a divine current running through you and me - the current that establishes the work of our hands for all eternity.
The life goal of Jesus was undoubtedly to glorify God the Father. And God the Father undoubtedly expressed that he was glorified in Jesus. But the Father wasn't glorified because Jesus made a ton of money. He wasn't glorified because Jesus had the best reputation in town. He wasn't glorified by Jesus' fame or abilities.
How does one respect God? How do you glorify God? You know the Son would have the best plan for this - he would respect the Father most appropriately. How did he do it? Phil. 2 shows how Jesus planned to and then glorified God the Father. The best way to glorify perfection is to mirror it, to display it. And that's what Jesus did. He displayed God's likeness.
It says he did not consider equality (or sameness) with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.
He did not consider sameness with God something to be grasped. He wasn't grasping for a "lofty" quality "up here." He considered it to be the "lowly" quality "down here." It wasn't fireworks and status. It was servanthood. It wasn't taking in praise and applause. It was giving himself away. As Darrell Johnson said, "In becoming human, Jesus did not give up divinity, he displayed it! The best way for Jesus to be God was in a manger and then on a cross."
Jesus mirrored the Father - and the best way he could do it was through service - giving himself away. So he gave himself away and was exalted above every name - not because the reward for servanthood is high status. but because in the kingdom of God, servanthood is high status.
This is God's profile. This is what makes him tick. This is the powerful family characteristic - the God-current that runs through humankind because we were made in his image.
This is the secret to a life of meaning. If you want to live with meaning and carry purpose, give yourself away. As Johnson said, "If we cling to our lives, we destroy them. Because we weren't made to cling - we were made in God's image and are therefore ourselves when we give ourselves away."
When God calls us to follow him, he's not squeezing us into an alien mold - he's calling us to be who we were made to be.
Life is short and fragile. We are at risk of living our lives void of meaning. Three of you will die this year. Despair? Desperation? Or Perspective? Despair and desperation will give way to perspective. as we image God by giving ourselves away. We can do this because Jesus did this. He served us and gave us both an example and a Way for us to serve. Because he gave his life for us, we can live our lives in his image, spilling over with great meaning for all eternity.
Life is short.
Life is fragile.
We're in danger of living our lives void of meaning.
But when we give ourselves away, our lives carry meaning through eternity.
Father in Heaven, From everlasting to everlasting you are God. You are infinitely good. You gave yourself for us, that we might live life fully. Take our lives. We offer what we've got, and ask you to make good on them for all eternity.
Amen. |
