So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32 (ESV)
Confronting our innate values and priorities in life
If you had the chance to step into the shoes of someone you admire, who would it be? Bill Gates? Lionel Messi? Kate Middleton? Michael Jordan? Tom Cruise? Taylor Swift? The Pope? Or perhaps, someone else entirely?
Answering the question above confronts our innate values and priorities in life. These include riches, fame, popularity, renown, influence, and accomplishments. Deep within us is a desire to follow our model, even an “idol,” given an opportunity to do so. In other words, if we are actually free to choose a life we want to live, what kind of life do we want to live, including its corresponding values and priorities in life?
But what does it truly mean to be free? Is it about living as you please? Is it about realising your full potential? Or is it about making the most significant impact you can before your time is up? Ultimately, what is the essence of true freedom? We live in this world for around eighty years or so. Answering the question of what we can do depends on how we look at our lives – is there more to life than our lifespan?
Are you earth-bound or heaven-bound?
Over a hundred years from now, chances are all of us alive today will be gone. And this is true for most of our children. Those who will exist then will be our children’s generations who will not even know us. It will be as if we never existed. No one will remember us anymore. By that time, who would care what lives we live now? Will it matter if we were rich, popular, famous, and had many accomplishments? The harsh and sober reality is that those things would not matter. But you know what will matter? If we have a soul that would extend our existence beyond eighty years or so. The existence of an eternal soul would lead us back to our existence, our creation, and eventually our Creator.
It is sad but true. If there is no God, we live purposeless and useless lives. We are not much different from animals or even plants who come and go. There is no purpose for existence because we all are accidents of nature brought into reality by random motions of atoms and molecules. There are no absolute moral standards. You live for yourself and yours alone. What advantage will you have if you live a life of goodness, love and sacrifice? Each and every one of us will be looking only after our own good, advantage and agenda. But then, after living a selfish and greedy life, would our life matter anyway? No. Knowing we will all die with nowhere to go is living in constant fear and hopelessness.
Do you live a life with a purpose and hope beyond the grave?
If there is a God, it changes everything. Our existence is not an accident. God created us, and He must have a grand plan for us. Scripture teaches us that God plans to share an eternal life with those who choose to follow and be in tune with Him. We have an eternal destiny. God wants to share His perfect goodness and life for eternity with those who decide to follow and love Him. We live a life with a purpose and hope beyond the grave.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Ephesians 1:3-10 (ESV)
Our true freedom is based on how we respond to God’s invitation to join His grand plan for us. It is up to us to choose what we want to do with our short life. Two destinies await us – extinction or eternal life with God.
Who do I want to be? Do I want to be Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Albert Einstein, Beyoncé, or even King Charles? Not being proud or arrogant, I would rather be myself, with my own gifts and talents, with limitations, idiosyncrasies, weaknesses, and even sins, but a person who wants to follow Jesus Christ with all of my life for the rest of my life. At the end of the day, that is what will really count toward being truly free and fulfilling my eternal destiny – an eternal life enjoyed with God and everyone else who followed Him.
Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
Matthew 13:16-17 ESV
Top image credit: Man standing in front of a waterfall looking up, by Matthew Pablico, from Uplash.com. Free to use under the Unsplash License.
Tom Caballes is a National Coordinator of the Lamb of God, a community of the Sword of the Spirit with seven branches located throughout New Zealand. Tom and his wife Mhel and their two daughters [with his son-in-law and grand-daughter] live in Wellington, New Zealand.