Eternal Life, Eventually
How often do you think about eternal life?
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: 'You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.'" He said to him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth." Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." They were greatly astounded and said to one another, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible." Peter began to say to him, "Look, we have left everything and followed you." Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first." - Mark 10:17-31
At different times in our life, we focus on different things.
Eternal life may not be at the top of our list when we are young, in college, starting a family, chasing a career goal.
Maybe it becomes important to us when we attain all we want to attain, when we have wealth and comfort.
After struggling your whole life to achieve success, who wants to hear that you need to shed those things that you worked so hard for in order to obtain eternal life.
The young man may have realized something was missing in his life, so he came to Jesus for help, but the last thing he wanted to do was give up all he had accomplished and acquired.
He may have come to the conclusion that eternal life was still not that important to him.
This life is what matters to him and to most of us, right?
Who has time to think about what comes next?
The message for us may be that one day, when all the busyness of our lives settles down, when we have no more commitments, and all our needs are met, we may find that something in our lives is lacking.
At that time, we will ask ourselves is this is all there is. And then we will understand the question the man asked Jesus.
What do I need to do now?
While the struggle is on, though, this question is far from our thoughts.
That is probably by design. God wants us to focus on living a full and rich life, one where our love for one another is paramount, at the forefront in our thoughts and deeds.
But then, when all is said and done, He wants us to come home.
Will we? Or will we choose to walk away?
More to come...