I spoke with a man who runs a recycle, waste disposal and cleanup business. He’s one of the people you meet that shine the light on the side of life regular folk don’t commonly dwell in. Waste disposal is something we do on a daily basis but a cleanup of an estate descends into life beyond death.
One of the underlying realities that struck me, as he was cheerfully explaining to me about his successful business, was how the ultimate value of our material possessions becomes much like a kingdom that has fallen to a conquering army (death). Everything is subject to be discarded and divided with mercenary intent. It was sobering, yet it resonated truth after studying the Word of God.
We live in a world that is insanely materialistic, attaching much greater value to things than they deserve. Most things that we value bring back some memory of our cherished past.
How do we find contentment by marking our history? Somehow we attach eternal importance to them. The question arises, why do we assign so much value to things that are essentially worthless to most people.
Come to think about it, even our bodies are temporary.
Poignantly, I recalled the experiences I had when each of my parents died. With such a miserably little amount of honor and respect I, as just a common man of common family, could muster given the circumstances, I bid farewell to the once live bodies, the earthly remnants of the people I most dearly loved and trusted in my life. I was there each time when authorizing the release of their lifeless bodies to those whose regular job it was to handle the newly dead. I had gone to see that other side of life, the realm of what is no longer alive.
And yet we value so much that is already not alive.
There just has to be something beyond death. What makes each person a being can’t just cease to exist when the body stops working, beginning with that process initiated by death. A state referred in the Bible as the “wages of sin” (Romans 6:23).
Why do we hold on to material things that have no lasting value and not grab on to the eternal relationship with the God who created us? We battle over what Is comparatively garbage and ignore the greatest relationship we can ever know. We associate invisible realm as something without worldly substance, and therefore without meaning or value. Consider what the Apostle Paul wrote:
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. – 1 Corinthians 9:25
It makes one contemplate the value of the minimalist. It would free us up for non-material objectives and things are greater spiritual value, greater Godly value.
Don’t get me wrong, there are material things that I enjoy in my life. I enjoy things that provide for a safe and convenient environment for my family like living in a home, a car to get around in, having good food to eat, memories to look back on.
I enjoy the flowers that live brilliantly for a couple weeks and then fade way and die. You appreciate them because their season is short. You know they are going to die soon but they have life and beauty of their own.
Granted, some things that were very important to me before are either not as important or not important at all.
We tend to live much of our lives in the past, attempting to relive old glory. A desire to be remembered. We ought to remember how much God loves each one of us and the mystery of how wee little us can even be valued by the Creator of the cosmos.
Studying the lives of many of the servants of God in the Bible is one of people living uncluttered lifestyles, freeing themselves to obedience. The disciples of Jesus left all behind to follow him. Christ Himself forsook all the wealth and power the world could tempt Him with and He chose a path of obedience to The Father that led to humiliation, pain and suffering, and an agonizing death. He sacrificed His life on the cross to redeem a world of sinful people while bearing the weight of sin throughout time.
Jesus left us some inexpensive, simple, and meaningful ways to remember Him: “19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” – Luke 22: 19-20
He knew we had to eat, what a great way to remember Him often.
The disciples of Christ led a life that was not only light on material goods but lived in stark contrast to the hypocritical pharisees and the religious who sought wealth and social status.
Not all believers in Christ are called to live a life of abandoning all for ministry, but at the same time it is never out of the realm possibility. Christians are led by moral restraints to be responsible for those around them which does not include abandoning their duties and responsibilities.
This reality of “taking up the cross” remains a struggle for me, but Christ also remains a role model for a self-sacrificing life of obedience, a kind of life that I heard Jordan Peterson reel in contemplating the amount of sacrifice a person who “chooses” the life of a follower of Christ. Peterson made remarks related to how a believer must be willing to avail himself to face the same horrifying ends that were documented in the history of the martyrs.
I have news for you: Jesus taught, no one chooses to become a born-again Christian any more than that you chose to be born from your mother’s womb. For those who believe you can work to save yourself in any manner, to be able to deliver yourself from God’s wrath on the Day of Judgment, contemplate that mystery of being born-again. It’s a matter of God’s grace and being called by God.
At some point we wake up to it. In my case I had to be driven to a state of despair before my self-righteous self gave way to open my eyes to the truth.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will… – Ephesians 1:3-5
God chooses us for His glory. It is a truth that is hard to comprehend, yet that is what God has revealed in the Scriptures and it has much to do with the dimensions of God that we cannot fully grasp as the created beings we are, albeit made in the image of God.
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” – John 3:4-8
The emphasis belongs to the spiritual food that most of us ignore. In the spirit of Free Will, most ignore or reject a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Lord and Master in whom we will find the true peace that surpasses all understanding in all circumstances. Finding greater peace in God, seeking God, drawing closer to God, naturally draws us further away from worldly things, the kinds of things that tend to accumulate for the cleanup man to take care of when after we die.
Along with ultimate demise of our material possessions, we all have an appointment with death and we ought to prepare for that. There is no clearer and no other solution than the Good News to take care of our souls.
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? – Mark 8:36
The Good News of Jesus Christ is explained in many ways in scripture, consider this:
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. – Romans 5:7-9
For a detailed explanation of who Jesus Christ is from the Bible’s perspective go to the video in this website , “Who is Jesus Christ?”
For a one minute explanation of the Gospel, watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCP9UcC7BzE
For a review of the Ten Commandments: https://www.challenyee.com/the-ten-commandments/
CKY
P.S. Typos and all, I do not use AI.
Sunset photo in Hawaii (Maui) is from my personal stock.
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