Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Bulls - Eye

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Cor 4:18

Funerals do not have to be depressing affairs. Mary was the mother of one of my best friends growing up. She was a woman who walked next to God. I had cared for her physician husband during his fatal illness twenty years ago. If any of us is eligible, Mary will certainly be one who hears those words from our Lord, “Well done.”

I listened as the young man sung the beautiful hymn, Eternal Life… ”For it is in dying that we are born into eternal life”….and I could see her there, rising up to Jesus.

For me it was a moment of memory but also a moment of commitment. The thought of heaven is not just helpful for me as a hope in the face of death’s despair. In a real way, heaven is a target, a bull’s-eye for my life on earth.

Our lives are filled with decision-making moments and directional choices. Sometimes there are no clear signs to show us the way. I have found that these decision points are less stressful if I can focus on life’s ultimate destination. When I sat in that funeral service and pictured Mary with a Lord who was pleased with her life, I told myself, “That is my life’s goal, my chosen destination.” So, if my ultimate destination in life is the Lord holding out his arms, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” and then the individual choices I make between now and then had better point that way as well. If I choose this trajectory in life, many decisions I might otherwise make cannot be made and life choices actually become less complicated.

Ken Jones, a pastor friend of mine and CMDA leader, has often told me that there are two ways to hit a bulls-eye; one is to draw the bulls-eye and aim for it; the other is to shoot your arrow and draw the bulls-eye around the place the arrow lands.

I’m drawing my bulls-eye now: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” I plan to aim for it with every earthly choice I make.

Dear Father,
Thank you for the truth of heaven. Thank you that You are there with open arms. Let me make my choices here so that I will then hear You say, “Well done.”
Amen.

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