My husband spends lots of time listening to preachers and speakers, sermons, videos, etc. I don’t. I am not inclined to sit in front of the computer and watch a sermon that is over an hour long…that is his thing, not mine. (On the other hand, he doesn’t read and I happily spend hours with a book.) But, Tim has shown me a few messages he felt were especially enlightening, and one that has stuck with me for months is one that Francis Chan shared. You can find the link here, if you also want to spend an hour in front of your computer watching a sermon.
Basically, the message begins with a rope illustration. The rope is white and long enough to circle the (very large) room many times over. A small portion, probably just a foot long, is colored red. The red part represents the part of our life that is spent on earth; the rope is a rough estimate of eternity. You probably already understand the illustration–our life on earth is just a tiny, tiny part of our entire existence. I know I had heard the same message many times before, but in one of the mysterious ways the Holy Spirit works, it was through this illustration that the Spirit spoke into my heart and I have not been able to stop thinking about it since.
Life is short. What am I working for? I don’t have a career, so I can’t say I’m trying to get a promotion or a raise. (Ha!) However, certainly I am working for other goals. I am working so my kids can have a good childhood, the kind of childhood I feel is appropriate. You know, with birthday parties, ballet classes, play dates, matching dresses, hairbows, trips to museums and zoos, family vacations to Disney World while they are still young enough to believe fairies are real. I sure hope nothing is wrong with those goals, because I’m not throwing them out the window. But in light of eternity, maybe I need to add some more goals. Like reaching beyond my own family to a world that does not know Jesus. As a stay-at-home mom, I’m more isolated than most from the secular world. I’m not forced to interact with the secular world on a daily basis, like maybe I would be if I had a job or was going to school.
I’m realizing that I am going to have to be intentional about not just living my life for the “red part” of the rope. I think American Christians do not think much about eternity, probably because most of us are doing OK in the red part. But the years are passing quickly–any mom can tell you that–and eternity is waiting. Our time here in the red part doesn’t really belong to us, but to Jesus, to allow Him to use us to do His work. What does that mean for me? Where will he take me? What will my life look like if I give up my own goals and let Him decide what the goals will be?
