What’s it worth

The recent news of the death of an old friend has got me thinking. She was in her late twenties. Not that old in Britain, though old in some countries where life expectancies only reach the early to mid-thirties. About my age. Here’s my thinking though – if I died now, what would my life be worth. I want to get to the end of my life and to have made an eternal difference to people. None of us know when our time on earth will be up. We may think we are immortal, invincible, in good health. But tomorrow, today, anything can happen. And here’s my direct question – when your time is up, where are you going? We can be so easily deceived into thinking we have complete control over our lives and that we are ‘good’ so we’ll be okay when we die. But what is that apparent control really worth – lives that are broken, guilt, shame. None of us can ever really led lives that are perfect enough to get us into heaven on our own terms. That is why grace astounds me so much – because God’s grace is about us not being good enough. So He sent His son to die for us, to pay the price of our failures so that through Him we can be good enough. But, what we have to do, is give God control over our lives and accept what Jesus did on the cross. Our lives on earth are so transient – what’s eternal life, a life that isn’t transient, worth to you?

“You know that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. … You have been born anew, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides for ever.” That word is the good news which was preached to you.” (1 Peter 1: 18-19; 23-25)