February 04, 2011
Throw Out the Lifeline
Recently terrible flooding has been reported in various parts of the world. As I watch the rescue attempts on TV I’ve noticed that there is a significant difference between a lifeline and a life vest. With the lifeline someone will help pull and guide you to safety. However the life vest may simply keep you afloat so that you can try to save yourself. It’s interesting that when we are in the depths of despair many of us grab for the save-yourself life vest rather than going for the Lifeline that Jesus offers.
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Gail;
-----Does Jesus not also throw out a life-vest? Should despair not be a part of the Christian’s life? The hero does pull the victim of circumstances to shore with the lifeline, but if it is a long haul, might not the victim drown without a life-vest? Jesus prayed about us, “I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world.” (John 17:15a) For us, it is a long haul. And we certainly have that lifeline of salvation attached. The joy of knowing the last sight we see upon dying will be that of the last grief we will endure and the next one will be the first of an eternity of perfection exterminates utter despair. But does it crumble the despair of an empty stomach or homelessness or the loneliness of being without a significant other? These and the multitudes of other circumstances necessary for living the long haul in this world do not cut the lifeline, but neither does the lifeline automatically fulfill them.
-----No matter how dire or trivial, the failure of a circumstance of this life presents a very personal decision to the Christian. One could either choose a struggle to meet the need of the circumstance, or abandon it and allow the circumstance to drop out of his life. If the struggle is chosen, one will need a life-vest, because personal effort and responsibility will be required - a self-struggle, so to speak. On the other hand, abandoning the circumstance allows the lifeline to tow one into whatever circumstance the Hero next chooses.
-----Neither decision is wrong; they are merely different. Struggling through a bad circumstance may lead to the collapse of your business, or it may lead to Secretariat. You don’t know until you get there. But you are taking personal responsibility even beyond the decision to struggle, and you will need a life-vest for the struggle. Yet that life-vest does not nullify your attachment to the lifeline. Choosing to abandon a struggle might be what saves your business, or it might put you in the stands watching someone else’s Secretariat. The Hero might pull you to a crop of rocks He knows to be just under the water’s surface, or He might allow you to drown in your temporal circumstance by your own lack of struggle, knowing you will next open your eyes to eternal bliss.
-----So, should the Christian even despair at all? A failed circumstance might rearrange your entire life, but as Eloquentcoffe will inform you, there is more to come that can take its place. Knowing the hands of the Hero tows the lifeline and desiring attachment to it more than to this world is for the salving of despair. Yet the life-vest is for the continuation of the struggle, if you so choose to take the struggle.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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