Good morning from Liverpool, New York! Our reading for this Friday, December 5, 2014 is Romans 8:18-25. 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. NIV I cannot believe that we are already into the Advent season with Christmas being only a few short weeks away. Time flies by! We all have heard it said that the older you get the faster time goes, but we know this isn’t true. Time is a constant; hours, days, weeks and years came and went at the same speed when we were all children as it does presently at whatever age we find ourselves. The difference in perception comes from our understanding of how much we have left to live. While we do not know when our time will be up, we know we have a limited amount of time. With each passing month we know that we get closer to our end and the time that has passed us cannot be regained. The changes we experience over time remind us of what has passed and lost abilities cause us to grieve over what cannot be regained. As a child we have less experience to be grieved and only an open future to anticipate. Our experience of mortality is explained as a result of our finite physical existence. It frustrates us because of the blessings we know we shall lose and the awareness of unrealized expectations. This is the curse of our existence. Our mortality can be a blessing as well as there are many painful experiences and struggles in our existence we may wish were not part of our life. We hope that life will be filled with greater sense of blessing than curse and we can be thankful for the blessings we have known or waste our present time grieving lost opportunities. For those who suffer situationally, physically or emotionally the passing of time and the approach of death can provide a hope for the end of struggle. The passing of time will tempt some to greater selfishness in the effort to make the most of the time they have which may only serve to bring increasing suffering to others if desire gives way to immorality, or it can help us be more selective of our pursuits and select the best to maximize our time. Jesus called the best we can pursue our earthly treasure and warned of the harm to us by chasing after the wrong things in the wrong way. This concept is only relevant if we believe there is more to this life than what we physically know and a judgment awaiting us for how we used our opportunities in the time allotted to us. In our reading the apostle Paul describes what I am speaking of as our human “frustration.” He defines in in terms of our experience of the ravages of time as our “bondage to decay.” I refer to this as the tyranny of time. We resist and fight it every day. We buy products slow the passage of time down or to reverse its effects on us physically. We can work out and attempt to live healthily in order to extend our time which will be met with limited success but will never determine the length of our lives due to the uncertainties we cannot control though while we live hold the promise of improving the quality of our lives. It so painful a subject because the more we talk about it the greater we realize how fragile life is. Critics of religion say that the hope for heaven is contrived by human beings to deal with and live with our mortality. There is no real proof of there being life after death or of heaven; what you see is what you get and the healthiest way of living they would say would be to simply accept what we see. If eternity and heaven are only a dream then I’d rather be a dreamer than to be mired in pessimism over the evils I see in life. I need to live with hope of something more and better than what I observe in life and I hope for this not only for myself, but for other travelers with me in life. Is judgment and eternity only a pipe dream? One of the reasons I am a Christian is the reasonable hope of eternity offered by faith in Christ. Christianity offers us with something tangible as evidence to support our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus ad had Jesus not been born we could not have this hope in which we live. Another reason for my specific choice of following Christ is the truth of His teaching as it resonates with my experience. I see the sin and evil in the world and our part in creating it. Sin is not just a word for me but a tangible reality that destroys quality of life for everyone. I hate it with a passion and struggle with its control over my thinking and behavior. I must believe in the hope of heaven and of judgment and grace for without these life is reduced to greater cruelty and evil. The Christian hope is for liberation from the ravages of time not for continuance of life solely, but in terms of quality of life. If we did not die then evil would continue because sin in us. Our mortality limits the impact of sin and provides relief for those who suffer from the curse of earthly life which we believe is the result of our separation from God due to our sinfulness. We also believe that God is working out a plan to redeem human life that when complete will restore us and our world to sanity and a quality of life we can only now imagine. My hope provides me with something positive to work for throughout my life and helps me to deal with the frustrations (what an understatement by the apostle) in life. We would not have this realistic hope had Jesus not been born, nor this hope had He not died and risen to life. Let us live today and the remainder of what time we have remaining with hope for more and something better for ourselves and others. Selah! Dr. Brian Homan
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 13:11:47 +0000
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