Day 29: Your Money or Your Life
Day 29: Living Daily in Reality: Your Money or Your Life?
The reality of our life here on earth is that our creator is a loving father who made us as part of his only son so that we could continue to exist even as we tried nothingness rather than him. Throughout our lives in his son he has borne the consequences of our choice of nothingness – borne our sins and patiently kept us alive through his son’s life. The ancient history book called the Bible states that this son “was the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created – all things were created through him and for him; he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Thus you have the opportunity to freely accept the reality that you are part of your maker’s son who has a life to live through you or to reject that and choose nothingness instead. Meanwhile your loving father sustains your life and bears personally all the consequences of your choice in others’ lives. He has foreseen what you would do and mercifully counteracted it in his son so that he alone is able to “turn back the clock” on the effects of your choice if you accept reality.
This reality and unreality show themselves in every area of our lives. An obvious one concerns our sense of security. Most of us see that food, shelter, and clothing are necessary for our lives. Although we’ve heard the old saying “look at the birds of the air – they do not sow or reap, and yet your heavenly father feeds them”, most of us have smiled sardonically and said ‘God helps those who help themselves’. So we go to it – get a good education to get a good job so that we can continue our existence and have children who can do the same thing over again. But we find there are six billion other human-beings doing this – and there’s only so much food, clothing, and shelter, so we determine we’ll get our share. But somehow we never get enough to make us feel secure or we get it but can’t be absolutely sure we’ll be able to hold on to it. So begins the life described by the British poet, Auden – “in headaches and in worry vaguely life leaks away”. We worry about the stock-market, our job security, our mortgages, our promotion, our retirement, our health – and on and on!
Of course, we try to change our thinking – especially when we lie awake at night or take alka-seltzer to get rid of the knot in our stomachs when a large bill has to be paid. But, however we try, our minds seem now to be in a rut that we can’t get them out of. We try to think positively but keep sinking back into worry and anxiety about the finances, the job, the future – everything.
Our maker knew this would happen to you – and the simple reality is that – in his son, Jesus (who died in the time of the first century on earth the death that he died in eternity when you were just an idea in God’s mind) this life that you have built on your own ability to be secure – he destroyed and remade in his son. This new life is your real one but requires you to be willing to let your old self be destroyed in
Jesus so that your new personality can begin to take its place.
So you can stop struggling to stop worrying – what you have to do is live in reality – accept that you are in this son of your maker – that you were made in him and be willing to die to the things he died to for you. Are you deeply willing to die to your salary and job security as your main hope of success and happiness? Are you willing to accept what your maker has for you – maybe prosperity, maybe poverty? Are you willing to live on whatever God who feeds the birds of the air thinks is good for you? Are you willing to be the failure that everyone thought this Jesus was in his life?
Will this give you what you want? Maybe not – but this is reality – and once you start living in it, your life has at last a chance.