Here’s The Most Awesome Life You Could Ever Live
Here’s some news that’s beyond good. It is awe-inspiring, breathtaking, stunning! As Millennials would say: “It’s dripping with awesome sauce!” The life you’re living – right now! – can be immeasurably more than you ever imagined.
[featured-image single_newwindow=”false”]Most of us have been sold a bill of goods that leaves us stymied and confused if we ever stopped to think about it. We’ve been told that the main project of the Christian life is to get to heaven when we die. We don’t want to go to hell – scary!! – so trust in Jesus and you’ll go to heaven.
Have you ever tried to find that exact teaching in the Bible? I just looked. Can’t find it. Now that’s scary!
That doesn’t mean that you don’t need to trust in Jesus or that there is no heaven. My point is that I can’t find a connection between the two ideas. It’s true that for anything good in this life and the next, you must have faith in Jesus. And, there is something in the future sometimes referred to as heaven.
I don’t say this to discourage you or cause you to question your relationship with God. I say this because the design of the Christian life goes way beyond “cause”/faith and “effect”/heaven.
If being a Christian is not about getting into heaven, then what’s it about?
The design of the Christian life is to become by grace what God is by nature. That’s it. Plain and (not so) simple! Wowsy!
You’ve been called to “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1.4). You have been invited in prayer to “be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3.19). That beats “going to heaven” any day. Cash in the bus ticket; you’re flying to another universe!
Becoming by grace what God is by nature is like diving into the Atlantic ocean – an abyss of mystery. Escaping hell and going to heaven is like swimming in a back-yard pool – wonderful but confined. Both have their place. But one is so much grander than the other.
Grander because it absolutely provides challenges and motivations for you to actually LIVE to become someone like Jesus Christ…NOW. It gives the best answer to the question, “What do I do now while I’m waiting to get into heaven?” (If you’ve ever asked that question.)
Many authors of scripture write with this reality in mind. This truth is communicated by St. Athanasius of Alexandria in the 4th century. It’s what the early church understood as God’s design for humanity. It’s how people of the Church lived for a thousand years before some started messing with it. It is a remarkable way to understand and live the Christian life.
Do I dare say it? You are designed to become a little Jesus by God’s grace. How awesome is that?!? A stunning, delightful, stimulating, and provoking reality all wrapped up in a salvation tortilla. Tasty and filling!
You have aspiration, direction, and design to live by – become by grace what God is by nature. It is awesome beyond awesome!
What now?
- Meditate on 2 Peter 1.3-11 and/or Ephesians 3.14-21 for a while or for days.
- Pray for eyes to see this truth.
- Begin exploring the abyss of the mystery of becoming by grace what God is by nature.
- Slowly read, On the Incarnation, St. Athanasius, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press; Introduction by C.S. Lewis
- Accept the grace of God in every circumstance of your life.
Ponder: What would this reality mean for you? What differences would it make for you?
Share your thoughts below.
Dr. K