RELENTLESS OR REDEMPTIVE

I woke up tired the other day. I have had over 72 years of waking up and that morning a thought passed through my head that went something like this, “Life is just so relentless!” I stopped and had to respond immediately. You see, it is a lie from hell, a demonic lie to say that life is relentless for what follows that thought is too often the next black idea that, thus, life is without meaning.

Your orientation towards life makes all the difference. For if the pursuit of pleasure, the desire to possess more “stuff” and pride in what you possess and accomplish are the things that drive you, then life can seem relentless, for all those things can be lost in the blink of an eye. You can become physically debilitated, a stock market crash or and fire consuming all you have accumulated can decimate everything you have based your identity and worth on. If your identity, worth, and meaning are grounded in this present world, your life has been built on shifting sand and will not withstand the storms that come to all who live in this broken world.

It is true that life on earth is transient. As there is birth, there is death. We all have a beginning and a shelf-life on this earth. But, when life is God-centered, one can see clearly that the lie that "life is relentless" is a cheat, for God has promised life in its fullness, not just here on earth, but for eternity to those who will believe Him. When a person believes the Gospel, that God has done everything to restore humanity to being human again, forgiveness, healing, deliverance, hope, a new heart and a new way to live with confidence in Someone who is eternally faithful, Jesus Christ, life takes on new meaning, true meaning.

Life is not relentless; it is a gift from God. In Christ Jesus, in that real, eternal relationship that transforms and restores humanity, meaning and purpose are discovered, revealed by God to the hearts and minds of all who will trust, yield and surrender all of life to His goodness and plan. When we are young, life does not appear relentless because there is adventure, mystery, growth, discovery, much to learn and come to understand. In Christ, that learning and growing and maturing is ongoing. It does not stop when your hair goes gray and your body slows down, in fact the tempo of one’s inner life in God is even meant to increase as we understand that the days ahead of us are much fewer than the days we have already lived through.

Knowing Him, being known by the God who has created you and rescued you from sin and death and Who now lives Life within you is humbling and amazing. The Lord is infinite, and we are finite. There is much that He wants to impart and confirm in our lives. Each day is a gift, an opportunity to surrender all we are to all He is that He might not only live Life within us but live His Life through us in the Holy Spirit’s power to impact the world around us. There are those in our own sphere of influence who need to see God’s faithfulness lived out, that they, too, might step out of relentless living and into Life that never ends, never grows smaller, but only grows bigger, more adventuresome, more real.