Where
is the light when all you see is clouds upon the sky? Where is the
sun when all you see is hidden, dark, inside? When all that you would
want to see in beautiful array is out of reach and ever gone, forever
far away? You only have Gehazi’s eyes1
and fear doth rule your day.
Indeed,
child, look with the eyes of the prophet, and fear shall flee away.
Have
you been looking and hoping for something that has refused to show
its face? Why are your eyes not on Jesus, the Bringer of all grace?
We
strive for so many useless things that cannot bring us to Heaven!
There is but that one goal, and material cannot get you there. We
hope for a new job, a new car, a new home. These can help in this
age, but they cannot take you into the next.
Almost
50 years ago a legendary science fiction series took us to a place
that, according to the episode’s title, was known as The City
on the Edge of Forever.
In that place there was a gateway that could allow you to go back
into time to correct a wrong that had been done. There, if you were
very careful, and diligent to take infinite detail into account, then
maybe—just
maybe, mind you—you could correct that wrong. But
there is always a cost.
Even
such a place, though, cannot take you beyond that which begins to be.
It cannot help you with eternal things.
No
car, no job, no home—no
starship—ever
could. They are for here, they are for now, they are for this moment;
they are not for all time. They never could be, for that is not what
they are designed to be.
How
many of us wish to be eternally happy, eternally joyful, eternally
without care of any kind! But that is not where we are meant to be.
We
are not meant to be lol-about, latté-sipping,
self-interested louts. We
are meant to care. We are built for self-sacrifice. We
are designed to see others—no
matter how low, or wretched, or foul they may be—as
more important than ourselves.
“Where
are you getting that?” you may ask.
Why,
from the Scriptures, of course. Indeed, let me take it from the very
same source that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ—and
those who tested Him—quoted
when asked about it in that day, the Septuagint: και
αγαπησεις κυριον τον θεον σου εξ ολης
της καρδιας σου και εξ ολης της ψυχης
σου και εξ ολης της δυναμεως σου2
and
και
ουκ εκδικαται σου η χειρ και ου μηνιεις
τοις υιοις του λαου σου και αγαπησεις
τον πλησιον σου ως σεαυτον εγω ειμι
κυριος3.
Note,
in particular, in both passages, the operative term being αγαπησεις,
the future, active, indicative, second-person singular
verb form of αγαπη,
self-sacrificial love.
That
means you sacrifice yourself for them.
The
meaning of life is not
selfishness, or greed, or lusting (after power, or anything else).
The true meaning of life is αγαπη.
Some may ask you, “If there is a God, why is there so much evil;
why are there so many poor, hurting, suffering people? If God really
existed and was all-good
and
all-powerful then surely He would never
allow such things to exist!”
Your
answer, to give them, my friend, is simply this: “If He did not,
then you could never know the true meaning of life.”
At
this point, they—likely
very derisively—will
ask, “And what is that?”
To
which your simple reply is “αγαπη”.
Don’t
volunteer an explanation; let them ask.
If
they do not, walk away. If
they do, let the lesson begin.
Be
certain, though, that you also learn it yourself. I
have long experience with the fact that self-interest creeps in at
the most inopportune times. Be on your guard against it; be on your
guard against yourself; be on your guard against your “rights”;
be on your guard against anything that elevates you above the other.
Following
the Broadway of self-interest will lead you far, far, far away from
God. It is an easy path, and wide, traveled by many as they beat the
dirt down into a foul asphalt of death and wickedness and
sin
and despair as they march hand in hand, inexorably, to hell.
Do
not fall in with them, but you fall in with Christ. Put
aside all your self-interests! Stop seeing with Gehazi’s
eyes1,
and see with the eyes of God!
Is
it not God who knows all of your faults? Is it not God who knows your
weaknesses? Is it not God who knows your sin? Is it not God who
designed and built and therefore knows your heart—and
therefore knows your needs—even
down to the very final detail?
Why,
then, would you cast His heart away? Why, then, would you seek a
darker day? Do you not trust He knows your needs?
He
supplies them every day—even
to the light of day.
The
devil
has a clever way to blind you to your needs each day. He shows you
things your flesh desires to turn your heart away from what you need
each day and, thus, leads you astray.
You
say that God has promised you, and you won’t turn away from what
you see as Heaven’s light, but is the darkest day.
Put
all your needs away.
Put
all
your needs away!
Give
them to Christ each day. For when the darkness circles in He is the
brightest day.
Put
all
your needs away!
If
you really trust in Him, then
give to Him each pain.
Keep
not
a thing
away.
Give
all
your pains away!
Your
loneliness, your deep regrets, things you wish you could say.
Give
all
your griefs away!
No
matter what you did or said He is your light each day, and all
the sorrows you have caused will soon dissolve away!
Give
all
sorrows away!
“There
is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins, and
sinners, placed beneath that flood, lose all
their guilty stains!”4
All
you have ever needed to do to have your fill from the fount of every
blessing5
is to give yourself away.
Stop
clinging to yourself and start clinging to Christ! You cannot hold on
to both.
Give
yourself away in order to cling to Christ!
When
you stop clinging to your own hopes, wishes, and dreams, you begin to
see reality, and
that reality is this: You are not your own.
You
have been bought with a price—an
incredible, infinite price!
This
is why there is no other way for the price you owe to be paid: Only
infinity can match infinity.
How
did you come to be in the situation of having an infinite price on
your head? God is infinite.
Your
sin has offended the infinite God. The price you have incurred is,
therefore, also infinite. It is a price you cannot pay.
Not
in 10,000 times 10,000 lifetimes could you ever hope to pay. It is an
infinite price and you are not infinite. It is a price you cannot
pay. Ever!
What,
then, shall we say? What, then, shall you do, but give yourself away?
“But
there is a question, then,” you say: “How has this price been
paid?”
I
am so tempted to break into hymnody, now, but I must also give myself
away!
The
very One who commands you to give yourself away gave Himself away to
wash your sins away.
The
פלא,
the יועץ,
the אל
גבור,
the אביעד,
the שׂר־שׁלום,
has come down from Heaven to us to give Himself away—for
us6.
That
is what has happened. That is how your price is paid. He of infinite
worth has given Himself away to pay to save that one of no worth at
all.
If
you doubt me, go, and look upon the cross. Look upon the cross and
see the price He paid for thee.
How,
then, can you look into the eyes of those you see as worthless and
not give yourself for them, when God has given Himself for you, who,
in earthly eyes are of no value to Him at all?
Cast
all your fears away! Look with the eyes of the Prophet and give
yourself away.
What
beauty can be said when you’ve touched the Sacred Head and all your
sins are washed and gone away?
What
part of you can hide when you have God inside and all your dark is
lost and gone away?
Where
are those clouded skies when you have Heaven’s eyes and all your
sorrows healed and tears all dried? Think of all you’d miss if you
should still insist to use Gehazi’s eyes1!
12
Kings 6:17
2Deuteronomy
6:5
3Leviticus
19:18
4William
Cowper
5Robert
Robinson
6Isaiah
9:6
