Today’s post was inspired
by a song we sing in church pretty often. The song is called “There is a Peace”
by Sojourn.
After a recent trip to
Haiti, my fatigued team and I were moving to our waiting area in the Miami
Airport. As we were walking, I was carrying on conversation with my best friend
who was walking next to me. We were bemoaning how all the good times go so
fast, and all the bad times seem to never end. I then shared my perspective
that life is like a conveyor belt, and we are unable to move faster or slower
than the uniform, unchanging conveyor belt’s speed. This mental image had
helped me gain some perspective in the past. I then followed it up with a
metaphor of considerably less quality: the Escalator Analogy.
We were riding an
escalator, which is similar to a conveyor belt, so I attempted to adapt my
device to fit our scenario. “Life is like this escalator. It has a beginning
and an end. And all we can do is wait until we get from one end to the other .
. . except you can’t move forward . . . or backward . . . It’s kinda like being on an escalator
with Derren (one of the team members) directly in front and another Derren directly
behind . . .” At that point the analogy fell apart as I realized I couldn’t salvage
it.
One of the problems with
the perspective presented in the conveyor belt and escalator analogies (and the
perspective many people have on life) is the spirit that it creates within me.
I see life and time then as spanning on in front and behind without any idea
where the ride ends, just helpless to affect my progress on the belt and moving
along at a uniform speed. I feel rather depressed and held back, restricted.
Now this isn’t really a
big deal, I suppose, but my perspective was wonderfully reformed during worship
on Sunday. As we were singing the aforementioned song, the line “There is a
peace that is calling you home” caught my eye. That phrase “calling you home”
really stuck out to me. All of the sudden, I had a new idea on life. Regardless
as to where we are, whether on an escalator or a conveyor belt or anything
else, Jesus is calling us home. His irresistible call of love is daily drawing
us nearer to the beautiful consummation of the next life. We still aren’t able
to do much to change or impede time’s progress, but we can look to our Guide
Who is standing at the end, calling for us with joy, encouraging us to keep moving
forward.
With this in mind, we can
look at such troublesome thoughts as the prospect of getting old with a new
outlook. The older we get, the closer we are to that point when we reach the
end of the ride and run into our Savior’s arms.
This may seem rather
petty or far-out, but it is something that has been laid on my heart for a
while, and I felt like sharing.
-In Christ,
Phil
These are some comforting thoughts. Thanks, brother. Amidst the busyness of life, with all its demands, with all the expectations that are placed upon us by others, and even with the constant call to be engaged in the mission of God, it is wonderful to know that we are accepted in Christ and that we are indeed moving forward with great anticipation toward the inheritance that is ours in Christ. There is certainly a "peace" in knowing this.
ReplyDelete