| I spent this week at the lake with the family, watching kids finally doing normal summer stuff: jumping off the dock, tubing, water skiing, playing in the sand, and watching Hamilton on endless repeat. For me the week has been all about soaking up some rays and getting lost in a good book. Restful and relaxing. But the week is drawing to a close and “real life” awaits. Sending my girls off to college, and our youngest adopted son to his senior year of high school. Time flies, my friends. I’ve been thinking a lot this week about scarcity of time. Vacations always make me do that. I can get so focused on how fast the time is passing by that I fail to fully enjoy the time I have. I think it’s because the longer I live the more I experience how fast time flies. “Time flies” is just a softer way to say: Life is short. “Life is short” is just a softer way to say: We’re mortal. Death is coming. We don’t know how many days we have on this planet with our loved ones so we feel a frantic sense of time-scarcity. But what if that’s really the illusion? What if in Christ the one thing we have more of than anything is time? How would that change our perspective? How would it change my focus here on earth? What if clinging desperately to these moments with my children could instead give way to a confidence that we have billions of years together in eternity? I might be able to let them go on their own big adventures without the paralyzing fear that something might happen to them. Let’s never lose sight of the Good News: Jesus defeated death for us. Therefore, we really no longer need to fear our own mortality. We don’t need to feel sad that life is short. We don’t need to sigh about how fast time flies. Don’t get me wrong, when I drop the twins off at JBU this August I’m gonna bawl my eyes out. But I hope it’s with a firm resignation that they are safely in our Father’s hands and with a desire to see them live bold and brave for His glory. At our annual summer picnic and baptism, join me in letting these words cement our eternal hope: “Buried with Christ in baptism. Raised to walk in newness of life.” (Colossians 2:12) In Christ, we are already resurrected. We already have eternal life. It’s ours now. No scarcity at all. Preaching to myself here, friends. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). |
