Friends have encouraged me to write something for years. Most of the time I'm so caught up living life that there hasn't been time to reflect on it in print. On occasion I make entries in my journal and from time to time discuss life with friends over coffee or breakfast. Yet the time seems right to start a dialogue about "life."
What the scripture refers to as eternal life is actually a reference to a kind or quality of life. When I first heard about eternal life as a boy, I admit to thinking of it as an REALLY long worship service . . . and not being really excited about it (Still, it was better option than going to hell). Even as a new Christian in my early 20's, eternal life had strong religious overtones as I learned to adapt to a subculture that was foreign to me. To be clear, when I gave my life to Christ there was a profound sense of freedom I experienced. Without question the orientation of my heart and life was different. Yet there was something deeper that seemed to be eluding me. The gospel of a "wonderful plan for my life" was littered with old struggles, habits and emotions, and with those things, doubt about the authenticity of my faith.
It was when I began to understand the grammar of the New Testament that I discovered that eternal life was qualitative. Eternal life wasn't something I cash in on after I die, it was something I get to enjoy this side of heaven! I began to understand that this life wasn't the fruit of religion, or neatly compartmentalized spirituality, but the result of a day to day abiding relationship with Jesus. Through learning to walk with Jesus each day, I laid hold of the eternal kind of life . . . a life full of godlike joy, peace and power, yet authentic enough to allow for and redeem the dark things in my heart and the trials that invaded my life!
So let's explore "the life" together, not from 30,000 feet above the fray but in the midst of the journey with all the twists, turns and questions.
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