Thursday, May 20, 2010

The Sinking Sand of Life

I love the boldness and arrogance of youth. Who am I kidding? It gets on my nerves as quickly as the next person. They are like young pups yapping at the heals of the patient male dog; they have no idea how much they are covered by grace. Each generation of youth believe they have all the answers to the ills of society and the world and praise God they are like that because they renew our hope and vision. But there are those who do not have a clue how to show the respect that is owing those who have gone before them. Youth have no understanding of how frail life truly is, how much we are just wisps of smoke in the timeline of history because many of them believe they are eternal; no harm could ever befall them.

We should not be so surprised at this because until each of us have faced the death of someone we love we have no grasp of the reality of the fragility of our life. It does not take much to end our life; a disease, an allergy, an accident. Recently three cyclists were struck and killed. Three women of various ages who had no idea they would not live to see the end of that day. Three women who were simply doing something they enjoyed doing, not harming anyone or anything. It is not just bed people of this world that die, or those who have no relationship with God; even followers of Jesus Christ face the possibility of death at any time.

It is not just the flesh that faces death. We believe we are so wise and intelligent but ideas come and go. Things of great intelligence rise and fall. The history of man is like a seashore with various waves crashing on the beach of mankind only to dissipate and recede as the next wave comes crashing in. Each wave changes the beach a bit but it does not last as the next wave comes in and changes it even more. There is nothing in the history of mankind that we can depend on. There are no leaders, no philosophies, no civilizations that we can lean on and turn to for security, except for one thing:

For,
   "All men are like grass,
      and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
   the grass withers and the flowers fall,
    but the word of the Lord stands forever." 

And this is the word that was preached to you. (1 John 1:24-25)

We forget that the book that rests on our coffee table, or in our bookshelf or maybe on our night stand is a very ancient and sacred text. Even before it was written on paper God had been writing it on the hearts of man. It was written in the glory of creation before it was set on paper. It even came in the flesh, in the form of Jesus Christ. It is an ancient word that is without change and is the only thing on which we can depend.

Nothing else in our lives is guaranteed, in fact, the normal way of life is for everything to change. People come and go, jobs come and go, health comes and goes, youth comes and goes. In such a place we need an anchor, something that keeps us centered in place when everything else changes. That anchor is the Word of God, Jesus Christ, the never changing Lord of lords and King of kings. If you base your life on anything else then you are in for a life of heartache and disappointments  Jesus promised us more than that. He is the solid rock when everything else is sinking sand.

No comments: