They positively identified my friends
remains a few days ago. She had
mysteriously disappeared as if she had been plucked off of the face of the
earth with few, if any clues as to how or why.
She was a good, but not especially close friend. We shared a church and a small circle of
mutual friends. We would chat and maybe
work together to clean leaves from the church gutters or wash dishes after a church
dinner. Before she bought her condo, she
asked me to inspect it. That was the
last time I saw her.
She
was a regular at every church function and seemed to especially enjoy doing
things for other people. I remember her
sitting with one church member who was nearly 100 years old during a
potluck. Most of the others had managed
to not see or visit with the centenarian.
My friend chatted, smiled, and as I recall, patted the old woman’s hand
as they spoke. My friend always seemed
to be helping someone. And then she was
gone.
My friend and I never had “the
conversation.” Mostly, I assumed that
being a church-going Christian she was saved—that she had an eternal
relationship with God through the grace of His Son Jesus. I also had yet to master “the conversation.”
It was easier just to clutch my assumptions and hope for the best. In the years since she disappeared, I have
thought many times about never having asked her about her relationship with
Jesus.
Asking a person about their faith can be
awkward; it’s easier not to ask and it gets easier over time. In our society we often hear that we should
avoid discussing religion or politics.
Religion is often claimed to be a personal matter and one best left
alone. In some circles, it’s not a
fitting subject for “polite company”. Hogwash.
A lot of people, maybe most people are
unaware or refuse to acknowledge that there are things we can do or not do in
our earthly lives that have eternal consequences. As a species, a society, and as individuals,
we are so bound to the here-and-now and are so infrequently confronted by
eternity that it can easily be concealed behind homework, shopping lists, and
the big meeting next week at work. Most
people prefer to put eternity off to the last possible moment much like those
who wait to file their income taxes hoping for a pre-midnight postmark.
Truth is that which is—things as they
actually are. Truth exists independent
of our wills and cannot be changed. Truth
is often not what we would like or not what we would wish it to be. As a practical matter, we cannot walk into
just any bank and start helping ourselves to as much cash as we want, we can’t simply
pick up all the items we want and walk out of a store without paying, and we
can’t decide to drive as fast as we want down the highway or at least we can’t
do these things without having to face consequences, often very serious
consequences.
It is much like this with eternity. As unfair as it may seem, we cannot believe
whatever we want or behave as ever we’d like without having to face
consequences—the most serious of consequences and consequences that will prove
to be irreversible. Physics, chemistry,
and mathematics are replete with unalterable “laws” that are entirely
inconvenient—you must obey gravity, you can’t turn jellybeans into gold, and
any given mathematical equation will produce the same result no matter how
often you perform it.
I never went out of my way to talk with my
friend about eternal matters. I never
cared enough to ask her if she had ever chosen to confront eternal truths. I never asked her about her relationship with
Jesus.
I truly wish that I had.
Have you considered eternity? Are you sure
of the consequences of what you have done or not done in this life? Do you have an eternal relationship with
God—the true God, the only God and His Son Jesus by whose grace we can enjoy
eternity in His presence.
Please consider that what you do or don’t
do during your earthly life can and will have eternal consequences and that
truth—the real Truth determines what those consequences will be.
