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Live to Die

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us spreads and makes evident everywhere the sweet fragrance of the knowledge of Him.  

2 Corinthians2:14

I’ve been thinking recently about the challenges for all of us living in a culture that is so contrary to the life demonstrated by Christ.  It is not necessarily “new.”  King Solomon reminded us in Ecclesiastes 1:9 “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” The culture is not new.  How we are so influenced by our culture in subtle ways is what’s forgotten.  

We often walk around in our life and this world with very few pressing reasons we have to “wait.”  Convenience and immediacy are becoming gods. I recognize this in my own life as I stop to think how “good” I have it and how used to “doing things my way” or in my own timing I’ve become.  If I train myself to be entitled to say, “drive myself” to or from work, I will have to prepare myself for a greater disappointment when there is a season I have to “share” a car.  You know what? Sharing is hard!  🙂  

We live in a world where we rarely have to wait for answers.  We google our queston and “there it is!”  We have to spend far less time researching and as a result we “understand far less” and “retain far less.” We share “calendars” and as a result don’t have to have face to face  conversations, nor do we need to understand “context” or “why a date is moved” or “unavailable.” Instead we make judgements and assumptions. We have  “group messages,” and might believe that everyone can or should respond immediately.  We lose boundaries and respect.  

We are decades into the luxury of email. We are so used to having the ability to say what we want without restraint that we have nearly forgotten that “waiting” is even an option.  Questions are becoming a thing of the past.  Assumptions are becoming the standard. Being correct is more important than seeking the truth and truth more and more what is willing to be sacrificed at the feet of the god of pride.  

These are as much reminders for me as everyone else. These are reminders as much for adults as they are for children, sometimes more so.  And these are reminders to help us ascend! They are not meant to bring us low.  

The Holy Spirit is a gentleman.  When He convicts us of areas in our lives that need to “die” so we can “live” like Him, He always comes with grace and restoration.  Those little nudges are not meant to bring shame, condemnation, or the responsibility to have to “beat ourselves up” for any length of time.  Those little nudges may mean saying, “I’m sorry.” They may mean “changing our ways,” or “changing our minds.”  And those little nudges will often come with the wisdom given freelly by the Lord discerning what to do next.  He will give us the strength to see from another’s point of view and to genuinely acknowledge when we have been wrong. His strength will allow us to care about how we treat people.

Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” 

We are a people saved by grace.  It gets easier and easier to have patience and grace with one another as each time that challenge arises we remind ourselves of the most recent time He has had to have grace with us!  The key is to only remember long enough to begin again!    

And what is the goal?  Maybe that is not even the right question. The right question is, “Who is the standard?” And the answer is Jesus.

Matthew 20:28, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life a ransom for many.”    .

When was the last time we truly became a servant to another? Can we serve without seeking credit or acknowledgment? Can we die to ourselves in the way Christ models for us? Our time here is brief. In heaven, we will have eternity to serve Him in a perfect culture and climate. But for this short moment on earth, we have the remarkable opportunity to offer Him this kind of sacrifice — to serve under imperfect circumstances, to give of ourselves when it costs something, and to honor Him in ways we will never again be able to once we step into eternity.