Salvation from the effects of sin
This week when I was at the prison my tech called in an inmate. He plopped into the exam chair and he profiled me. How do I know he did that? Because his words came pouring out. “You must make six figures, doc.” That was sort of a question, sort of a reflection of what he thought of me. I did not have to answer because he went right on to the next question-statement, “You must drive a Lexus.” He emphasized the Lexus almost as if the word itself was a pleasure to him.
I managed to drive through the first half of the examination, and as my view of what a salary is for was obviously far from his not a lot was said. I did get one phrase in, “I drive a truck…and…it’s not even a new one,” and out the door into the hall he went. He needed his eyes dilated so after those drops dropped onto his eyes he had a few more minutes to wait.
“Mr. so-and-so,” called my tech, and in he came. Bringing his words, his profiling of me, and his obvious preference for wealth and how to spend it he said with a semi-mocking tone, “six figures and you drive a truck…not even a new one….a three or four-year-old one.” After pausing for a pair of milliseconds his incredulity tumbled out, “you should go buy a new truck.”
I was still thinking about this fellow as I walked to my 3-year-old truck (I actually bought it about 35 months ago so it is not quite done with its terrible twos). My head was probably pointed toward the passing asphalt in the parking lot. “He is so now focused.” “What about retirement? I don’t think a fellow like that looks too far downstream.”
Coupled with these thoughts was my ninth Graham Greene book of the last six months: The Man Within. While the main character, Andrews, had little specific correlation with my incredulous inmate the setting included people with lives marked with little impulse control. All of these things jumble in the rock polisher of my mind. The part that most stood out to me was the fixity of the inmate’s view. The interaction on his part was so striking, so firmly enmeshed that assailing it with notions “wealth is not everything,” or “wealth brings its own problems” would have been sheer folly on my part. That said, I think that his pondering my different outlook may be God-used to crack through some of this man’s wealth targets.
Life without consideration of the future runs downhill. Doing what feels good is a great way to find yourself in the midst of regret. The Bible is God’s word to us. It is a lamp and a guide. By looking steadfastly upon its precepts, not forgetting them, but doing them one gains freedom from the negative effects of an undisciplined life. Sin has consequences though their barbs are hidden until you are hooked. Follow the ways of the Lord and you are freed from these effects.
Do you sometimes figure you have a boring life? Does it enter your mind that God’s ways limit you, hold you back, prevent you from having fun, etc., etc.? Don’t be deceived. The excitement the world offers is paper thin; the other side of the shimmer doesn’t. Protection from the effects of sin: that is a spiritual blessing!
Permanence
Have you been to a cemetery lately? Or, maybe you saw an armadillo, or even the rarer raccoon or fox, dead by the road to church. Has your child asked you, “Mom, did Fido go to heaven?”
The Bible gives us answers on these things both for ourselves and our children. This life is not all there is, we are far more permanent than that. This gives perspective for the present. It may not help with questions about pets in heaven, but Jesus did not die for pets.
Staying out of hell and making it to heaven when we die are both important parts of this discussion. Part of the notions underpinning such concerns though is that of now and forevermore. Some people believe we have our years on the planet and then time’s up! I conceive that this is what a true-atheist believes. On the pantheistic end of the belief spectrum, God is everything and humans are like buds on the face of a single, eternal consciousness. That is a bit like the atheists given the temporary nature of things.
In Christianity we are given a blessing: We live forever and can do so with God. That is a spiritual blessing!
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