Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
Imagine if we got an email today that said we would be laid off in five days. Would our focus, drive, and attitude change for the next five days? Absolutely…in fact it would probably change instantly. We would no longer be focused on the temporary job that we have for the next few days but instead would be looking to the long term…looking to find a new job that would last beyond the next five days. There would be really no value in focusing on the current job that was to disappear in a few days. Yet in our lives today, we find it incredibly easy and convenient to do this very thing…focusing on the temporary in spite of the permanent. Why do we put such extensive effort into pleasing one another instead of pleasing God? Why are we so disciplined in following what the world identifies as “right” and not what God proclaims to be right? Unfortunately sin skews our perspective…it causes us to see the temporary in spite of the eternal. It causes us to side with the world instead of the one perfect God. It causes us to put our happiness and desires ahead of the Lords. If it weren’t so serious, it would be downright silly…comparing something as flawed, unloving, and broken as the world with something as loving, sacrificing, and perfect as God. In the view of eternity, our lives on this earth are so very brief…just see James 4:14, “What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes”…yet at times it’s all we can see and it gets all of our attention. When Christ died on that cross, he erased the temporary and gave the eternal. He took all the mistakes, the filth, and the betrayals that we committed and literally erased them. He swallowed OUR punishment. We were destined for hell…a hell that is real, painful and eternal…and he took the hell for us. He took the pain, the suffering, the agony and he replaced it with peace, joy, and rest. It seems the realization of that incredible sacrifice on our behalf gets a bit glossed over in our world today. May we take time to really dwell on what we have been given today and allow that time to impact our lives…changing our gaze from the temporary to the eternal…changing our focus from serving man to serving God. To God be the glory!
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