Tag: Finishing

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A Good Compliment

Mark Twain once quipped, “I can go two months on a good compliment.” We today might say instead, “Affirmation is my love language.” (I like the legendary humorist’s version more.) It seems no matter how else we receive and express love—be it through gifts, acts of service, quality time or physical touch—we all embrace the sincere words of genuine affirmation. Think about it, when you “step over to the other side” into the presence of God, what words will you yearn to hear? Might they be these: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful… Come and share your master’s happiness”?1 What does this deep longing tell us but that we know we have purpose in this life and that this purpose is not about us? We are here to glorify the God who knows us best and loves us most and to be conduits through whom His love flows to a world that thirsts for it.

The Bible makes it clear we receive salvation by entrusting our life to the Son of God and His redemptive work on the cross: Jesus took upon Himself the penalty for our sins and in this great love redeemed us for Himself. Writes Paul, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”2 Yet just as the Spirit breathes new life into believers, so also He leads us in impactful acts of love that God planned long ago for us to do. Paul went on to explain, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”3 We are not saved through good works; we are saved for good works. And the God who gives us life is the God who gives us purpose.

If God has prepared good works for us to do, then doesn’t it make sense that we ask Him to show us what they are each day? This is Jesus’ model, for even the Son of God did only what His Father told Him to do4 and said only what the Father told Him to say.5 Likewise, life in Christ is not a matter of us doing what we want for God, but God accomplishing His plan through us. What an honor! How humbling! Such purpose! This is how we bear fruit that will last.6 Then in due time may we hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” We could go an eternity on this good compliment, couldn’t we?

Father, thank you for the honor of Kingdom purpose and eternal impact. Show us today what you would have us do and say today. Guide us, that we would set aside our will and be open to yours. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Matthew 25:23
2 Ephesians 2:8. 9 ESV
3 Ephesians 2:10 ESV
4 John 5:19
5 John 8:28
6 John 15:16

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Being Ready

We were a tight-knit family, the three of us, so when the time neared for Matthew to go off to college four hundred miles away, a sense of loss accompanied our excitement for this new season of adventure and growth. Student and parent orientations were held simultaneously at his school, both culminating in a joint convocation, and parents were asked to prepare a note to give to their student immediately after the ceremony. Instead of writing one note to our freshman son, Peggy and I decided each of us would write our own. When we compared them afterward, we were amazed to find both of us had penned the exact same sentence to him: “You are ready for this.”

Life is full of readiness moments; school is just one of many. Athletics, relationships, careers, retirement—all of these demand certain levels of preparedness. The same is true of our death: “You must be ready,”1 Jesus said to his disciples not long before leaving this world. He spoke of His return, but the same is true of our natural demise, as Jesus taught through a parable of a rich man, who invested himself entirely in worldly wealth for personal pleasure. “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”2 You have our attention, Jesus.

So, how do we become “rich toward God”? In a word: trust. Or in two words: total trust. When people in a crowd asked Jesus, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”3 For when we see Jesus for who He really is, and when we receive for ourselves the truth that He loves us to the point of ultimate sacrifice, His Spirit is born in us—we are His, we are forever new, and we will never die.4 This is not to suggest that at the point of belief we cease preparing for the Kingdom yet to come; rather, a new life of meaning and impact has been given to us. God has prepared good works for us to do, not to gain His favor, but in the freedom of the favor He has shown us in Christ. We pursue them knowing this: Jesus has gone to “prepare a place”5 for us, and we await the day when we hear, “Come, for everything is now ready.”6 He readies for us, while we ready for Him.

Father, we marvel at your proactive, initiating love. Save us, and free us. Grow us, and guide us. Prepare us, and use us. Grace us to be ready. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Matthew 24:44
2 Luke 12:20, 21
3 John 6:28
4 John 11:26
5 John 14:3
6 Luke 14:17 ESV

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The Arrival Gate

Airports are great venues for people-watching. Over there are the company folks, huddled around their leader, soberly nodding at her wisdom or overly laughing at his humor. Then this other group must be a sports team—they’re all wearing the same thing, though gathered in cliques. (Once, in the Kansas City airport, I fast-walked my way through a big group of big “kids,” only to discover later it was the Green Bay Packers.) Disney families are easy to spot, whether excitedly going or exhaustedly returning. What moves me every time, though, are the heartwarming hellos and the heartbreaking goodbyes—expressions of gladness or sadness of people coming or going. Sometimes I wonder how many have experienced both in the same trip—a tearful parting from the parents on the way to a joyful reunion with the fiancé, for instance. Life is full of emotional departures and arrivals, right up to the end—and through it, actually.

We know the goodbyes of death all too well, for we bid our final farewells from the departure gate. But what welcome greets our loved ones upon arrival, and what awaits us at our appointed time, as well? Truthfully, there is much we don’t know, but the Bible tells us what we need to know—those united with Christ through faith in Him arrive into His presence. The apostle Paul longed to “depart and be with Christ.”1 Also, according to Jesus, when God said, “I am the God of Abraham … Isaac and … Jacob,”2 long after they were gone, He declared these ancients still to be living and Himself still to be their God. At Jesus’ transfiguration, who were with Him but Moses and Elijah, both having lived and died centuries beforehand?3 And when would the man crucified next to Jesus be with Him in Paradise? “Today.”4

Sometimes when losing those we love or speculating about our own departure and arrival, we try to fill in the blanks with our limited imaginations, which are inescapably rooted in this world—speculation about celestial fishing holes, golf courses and bingo halls, for instance. In truth, what we will encounter is far higher and greater than anything our thoughts can dream up or our hearts contain. Assured Paul, “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived—the things God has prepared for those who love him.”5 This is the God who escorts us to departure and awaits us at arrival. He is that good; we rest in Him.

Father, you are forever faithful. You are with us in our comings and our goings. Grace us to rest in you so completely for our future that we live our todays in joy, freedom, purpose and love. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Philippians 1:23
2 Matthew 22:32
3 Matthew 17:1-8
4 Luke 23:43
5 1 Corinthians 2:9