Blogroll – Page 17 – Made for Eternity

artificial importance

Day 77

Last night as I was walking home from class, I passed a couple of the MU basketball stars on the sidewalk. These are the guys, who barring major injury or disaster, will make it to the NBA someday (and for one of them, possibly this fall). They may become stars there, too, or at the very least, solid players. Here at Marquette, they are the celebrities – people want to be near them, to know them, to be known by them.

It’s kind of weird (or not-so-weird), but I felt this fleeting need to talk to them, shake their hands, maybe ask for an autograph. After all, these are Important People, so if I’ve talked to them, I must be important by association. I can drop names, tell people I met so-and-so. My friends may be impressed. We are impressed by those to whom we assign this artificial importance – whole industries have cropped up to broadcast the minutae of the lives of celebrities. Indeed, they must be Important People.

However as I continued home in the twilight, I had to do some mental rearrangements, mainly dealing with that prickly sneak-up-on-you issue of idolatry.

I’m not denying that many people are very gifted – they may be athletic, beautiful, intelligent, charismatic, or amazing actors or musicians. It’s not wrong to appreciate and enjoy the talents of others. I do it every time I watch a baseball game or listen to the 5 Browns. Yet in reality, these people are not any better or any more important than I – an ordinary girl living an ordinary life – am.

They are sinners in need of a Savior just as much as I am. Christ died for their sins, just as he died for mine. When they stand before God, it won’t matter how brilliantly they played the violin or portrayed a character in a movie or how many NBA championship rings they earned. Just as it is with me, all that will matter is who they trusted for eternal life – their works, or the One who finished the work.

And the fact that they were Important People here on earth will just go up in smoke.

“You were horizontally strapped to a car via duct tape in 30 degree weather!”

Day 84

As my former roommate so dramatically stated above, yes, I was. Like the cartoon below, it seemed like a good idea at the time . . .

It was all part of a “Survivor-like” team contest in which one of the elements included each of the two teams duct-taping a member (me) of the group to a side of and old beat up car. Whoever fell off first lost that round.

Unfortunately, Bible college students tend not to be the greatest at the whole physics thing. They decided to attach the strips of duct tape on to a horizontal surface (i.e. the roof), rather than vertical surfaces (i.e. the sides of the car) ensuring that neither one of us on either side would be able to fall off at all. This would not have been problematic if it had been, say, mid-June. But it was not. It was April. And April in Chicago can get downright chilly. And they forgot to tape my head up, so . . .

I was like that for an hour and twenty minutes. I think they figured they should call off the idea and just give both sides the points when I started turning gray, became incoherent and was shivering uncontrollably. I’ve never been so cold in my life, which makes sense considering the Chicago wind, the metal car, and my inability to, you know, move and circulate blood.

I still don’t think my roommate has forgiven me for going through with the whole ridiculous fiasco. As she said, “Where were all the grown-ups?”

A sad side note to this story is that the young man in the picture, Clark, died tragically a couple years later. When I heard about his death, I immediately went and found the photo. I hardly knew Clark, but somehow looking at this goofy picture was comforting to me after the shock of the news.

Onward.

Spiritual Vitamins for Believers, Part 20:

I am kept by the power of God (1 Pet. 1:5).
I am preserved in Jesus Christ (Jude 1).
I am kept from falling (Jude 24).
I have a building of God eternal in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1).
My name is forever written in heaven (Luke 10:20).
I am more than a conqueror, even a super-conqueror (Rom. 8:37).
I have victory through Christ (1 Cor. 15:57).
I have overcome the world (1 John 5:4-5).
I always triumph in Christ (2 Cor. 2:14).
I am indwelt by the victorious Christ who is greater than Satan (1 John 4:4).

Em

Day 87

Sometime in 1988, a seven year old girl wrapped herself in the drapes in the family room of her home in Stroudsburg, PA, and secretly whispered a prayer to God for a little sister.

Why I wrapped myself in the drapes, I don’t know – maybe it felt safe and hidden. What I do know is that at that time, unbeknownst to me, the God who hears had already answered my prayer. A baby was on the way. The morning our parents told my two brothers and I about the impending arrival of “Babykins” (our family’s name for our unborn little ones – it comes from a Richard Scaary book), we went downstairs and set the table for six, much to Dad and Mom’s amusement.

Saturday, 22 April 1989 was a spring day not unlike today – warm and sunny. And that day, after months of waiting, Emily June made her appearance into the world. I ran around the house with a sense of elation that I’ve rarely felt since. I finally had a sister!

Today, my little sister turns eighteen. “Little” no longer, of course – she’s 4 inches taller than me, but still. I guess she’ll always be my little sister.

Today she is a beautiful, intelligent, kind young woman with a knack for caring for kids, strong academic and leadership records, a talent for drama, high school graduation in a couple of months, and college on the horizon. Where’d those eighteen years go?

Today I remember the sweetness of years gone by, of sisterhood, of sticking together as “the girls” with our four brothers. I remember the typical sisterly friction, the inside jokes, the giggling, the games. I remember our relationship growing as she grew older, so that now we are close friends who share a love for the Lord, a sense of humor, and similar tastes in books and music. We mainly communicate through email and instant messenger. Oh, and Facebook, of course.

Today I miss you, Em. I wish I could give you a hug, kiddo. But shouting HAPPY EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY across the wide world web will have to do until 87 days from now.

Nakupenda, dada yangu. Sana.

The pressing Virginia Tech questions: “How could someone do this?” and “Were they ready?”

Day 92

I’ve heard the first question dozens of times in the last two days. Once again, tragic events have caused millions to ask “why?” The first thing that popped into my head when I first heard the question was:

The world is dark. “Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)

Does this fully answer the question? No. But Mr. Cho Seung-Hui was a sinner. He, like all of us, had a sin nature, a heart of darkness. He gave more rein to that nature than most of us do. What’s more surprising is that this doesn’t happen more often considering how much sin we are all capable of.

The question fewer are asking – but the one that stabs my heart far more – is the latter.

I go to class 5 days a week, and until yesterday I never considered the possibility that I could die in the middle of a lecture on stuttering or vocal nodules. I can guarantee that those students in Norris Hall did not imagine that that class would be their last, that their life would end in that room. So the question that haunts me is the one of their readiness. If that had been my classroom and I had been a victim, I know with absolute certainty where I would have ended up – in heaven with my Savior.

I am ready to die. Were they? Are you?

People don’t like to talk about death. They’ll talk about nearly anything else, but when it comes to the most inevitable thing in life, people become ostriches, sticking their heads in the sand. They put their fingers in their ears: “La la la – I can’t hear you.” But ignoring the issue doesn’t make it go away.

If yesterday proved anything, it’s this: death will come, somewhere, somehow, sometime. Perhaps it will come in the most unexpected of places, like a mid-morning German class. But it will come.

And then it’s eternity. Forever. Are you going to heaven or hell? You need to get that settled before death arrives.

Do you realize you are a hopeless helpless hellbound sinner? Have you transferred your trust from your good works or your church or anything else to get you to heaven and placed that faith solely in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who died in your place on the cross and rose again? He said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Clearly there’s no other way to get to God, to attain heaven.

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)

Don’t wait. Simply rest in his work, and you too can be ready to die. Whenever that may be.