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.