Unavoidable Consequences

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.