Why It All Makes Sense

Why it all makes sense

Sorting through Mom’s stuff is like poking at a bloody wound to clean it up. It has to be done but it sure hurts while you’re doing it. Every picture, trinket, and book she owned has some memory attached. In these last months, when she lived in our home, I learned more about how she had experienced life than I ever knew. She was always so stalwart, so ready to do what needed to be done, I never really considered if she was enjoying it. And, come to find out, she didn’t always love her life! Dad and Mom, I came to find out, had their differences, but her love and loyalty led her to support him and ‘just do it.’

But, I don’t want to imply she felt regret! She lived with Eternity’s values, not those of this present life. What she did, she did ultimately for the love of her Savior. She went without stuff because she loved others. She gave up sleep to care for babies because Jesus wanted her to do so. She lived in places she did not like because that is where the Lord called her to live.

And, now, she is enjoying the reward of her labor. I can’t begin to imagine what she found as the Lord welcomed his daughter to her Father’s house. But, I know she will never have to move again, never have to buckle and get the job done, ‘for God’s sake.’  She’s home.

Her life makes no sense without Heaven. If Heaven is a myth and the Resurrection a delusion created to help us cope with life’s absurdity, then Mom was a fool! Paul says it like this:  “Why do you think I keep risking my neck in this dangerous work? I look death in the face practically every day I live. Do you think I’d do this if I wasn’t convinced of your resurrection and mine as guaranteed by the resurrected Messiah Jesus? Do you think I was just trying to act heroic when I fought the wild beasts at Ephesus, hoping it wouldn’t be the end of me? Not on your life!

It’s resurrection, resurrection, always resurrection, that undergirds what I do and say, the way I live. If there’s no resurrection, “We eat, we drink, the next day we die,” and that’s all there is to it. But don’t fool yourselves.” The Message, 1 Cor. 15:30-33

No genuine disciple’s life will make a whole lot of sense apart from the Resurrection. Why would we willingly ‘die to Self’ or give away our treasure or ‘take up our cross,’ if we did it only for the present?  We need to face that question honestly and deal with our indecision, then choosing today whom we will serve!

Put Heaven in your heart. There’s an inevitable appointment with death for each of us. Will it be a grim end or a joyful beginning? That, disciple, depends on your decision today.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing." (2 Timothy 4:7-8, NLT)