I don’t feel fifty years old, though next week I turn as much. Even though just one year older, there is something about those birthdays with zeros that seem to bring deeper reflection. If you’re anything like me, you have spent most of your life searching for significance and reaching for recognition. There is something innately present within each of us that longs for more. An inner unction that prays for more peace, that hopes for more happiness, and that groans for more rest. In essence, we are dying to live, which is to say that we are constantly wanting more out of life.
In a real sense, this is the quandary of being human in a fallen world. And yet, to those who want to live more, Jesus has an ironic bit of advice. Essentially he says, “If you are dying to live, then you must die to live.” Speaking of His own impending death, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels” (John 12:24). In other words, death is the way to life. Paul adds, “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain” (1 Corinthians 15:36-37).
Only God knows the moment of our actual departure from this place. The lesson for us all is that we must choose to die everyday as a living sacrifice. That is the paradox: unless we die, unless we surrender our will, unless we sacrifice, we remain alone like the unplanted seed. Lonely. Unfruitful. Unfulfilled. But if we die to self, then we truly live. As someone else said, “the life that yields the most—yields the most.”
What’s ironic in my own heart is how my hunger for more coexists with a deep contentment and profound thanksgiving for the blessings of life. On this week’s Thanksgiving Day, which happens to correspond with my fiftieth birthday, I have a deeper gratitude for the Lord’s provision than ever before—giving many thanks for family around me, friends who are with me, and a Savior who is for me. May your Thanksgiving Day be filled with a greater awareness of the Lord’s presence and provision in your life, and may you choose to die so that you may truly live—for Him and His glory!
In a real sense, this is the quandary of being human in a fallen world. And yet, to those who want to live more, Jesus has an ironic bit of advice. Essentially he says, “If you are dying to live, then you must die to live.” Speaking of His own impending death, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels” (John 12:24). In other words, death is the way to life. Paul adds, “What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain” (1 Corinthians 15:36-37).
Only God knows the moment of our actual departure from this place. The lesson for us all is that we must choose to die everyday as a living sacrifice. That is the paradox: unless we die, unless we surrender our will, unless we sacrifice, we remain alone like the unplanted seed. Lonely. Unfruitful. Unfulfilled. But if we die to self, then we truly live. As someone else said, “the life that yields the most—yields the most.”
What’s ironic in my own heart is how my hunger for more coexists with a deep contentment and profound thanksgiving for the blessings of life. On this week’s Thanksgiving Day, which happens to correspond with my fiftieth birthday, I have a deeper gratitude for the Lord’s provision than ever before—giving many thanks for family around me, friends who are with me, and a Savior who is for me. May your Thanksgiving Day be filled with a greater awareness of the Lord’s presence and provision in your life, and may you choose to die so that you may truly live—for Him and His glory!
Posted in The Greeting