HUMANKIND’S ONE SUBSTANTIAL HOPE

“And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”  (1 John 5:20 ESV)

I once did the following exercise with a group of businessman. I had them write, on five slips of paper, the five most important things in their lives. They folded the slips and held them tightly. Then I informed them a financial catastrophe had destroyed the economy; everyone’s wealth was gone. I circled the room with a wastebasket and made them crumple and discard the treasures that were vulnerable to financial collapse.

I repeated the procedure three times, adding factors of illness, fire, or the death of a loved one into the mix. Finally, many of them had only one item left. I insisted that if any catastrophe of any kind could take it from them, they had to relinquish it. What had started out as a lighthearted exercise became a sobering confrontation with matters of who we are and what it is that makes life worth living…

In the end, there are no guarantees on this earth -- not even my family. What I must bring myself to understand is that life is about more than this world and its tangible comforts and concerns. It’s about the hope of eternal life. Without that hope, how could there be meaning to anything else?

Take a walk in your local cemetery. Its etched stones bear witness to forgotten names -- faces that have flickered out in time’s expanse. But those engraved, fading epitaphs are not the final word, and therein lies humankind’s one substantial hope. Those who have trusted Jesus Christ keep their eyes on the horizon. They look to a world where nothing -- let’s say the word again: NOTHING -- can be taken away. 

-- Ken Davis in “Lighten Up”

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