The Movement of Life

Life is forever unfolding, full of ups and downs. It does not and it cannot remain constant. Oh, if only we were able to freeze time then we could take the perfect moment in our lives and hold time there forever and live and die in expected happiness and we might be satisfied, but we know that is just not the way that it is.

God set our life in motion but he does not determine the choices that we make.

It is true with faith as well. God sent Christ into the world; he has given you the opportunity to follow him and to live a Christ-like life, but God does not open the door for you and reveal to you how your life will be different with the presence of Christ in your heart. God does not allow us to peer into the future. Oh, how I wish he did, or would do, so that I could do what was necessary to direct the future of my life and of your life.  But God has not granted me that power and personal authority to my great dismay.

If one looks out on the years and considers life’s possibilities, Christ says let be a part of your life. Let me be your friend, your confident, your guide, and yes, let me even be your master, for I will lead you with faithfulness.[i]

But instead of opening the door to Christ we often choose to open different doors and allow acces to other things to guide our lives.  My seminary professor, Dr. Ben Campbell Johnson, who was head of the doctoral program in Christian Spirituality at Columbia Presbyterian Seminary said:

Where the True God is not known, persons turn to substitute gods, to idols.  Devotion to gods of success, pleasure, intellectualism, politics - even religion, good though it is - is nevertheless idolatry.  A young man graduates from the univeristy full of vision for his future.  He gives himself to his job, imagining that it will fulfill the cry of his soul for meaning.  It does, briefly.  But one he has achieved its goal, the old haunting cry returns.  The idol of success does not satisfy permanently.[ii] 

We must seek the guidance of the Lord and submit to his will.  By doing so, we will choose the right doors to open.
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[i] This understanding of a knock at the door was illustrated in Halford E. Luccock’s sermon A Knock at the Door, Minister’s Manuel for 1994, edited by Cox, 173. Instead of ‘delivery man’ Luccock used the term ‘milkman’.

[ii] Ben Campbell Johnson was head of the Spirituality Program as Columbia Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Decatur, GA.