Since the year 2000, I’ve been a part of a group that might know the solution to a problem our country seems to be struggling to solve. Though this group is very diverse with people from all races and walks of life, I’ve never witnessed prejudice or internal strife. What we all have in common is the secret to our harmony, but no one would choose to join… we are all dying.
Strangers are uncomfortable but friends smile when I talk about dying because I’ve been discussing it for seventeen years. But it is true that I’m closer to the end of life on earth now than I have ever been… and so are you! Over fifty friends from our group have passed away, including dear Mary whose funeral I attended this week, but the rest of us will stay positive.
No one really has the time to point an accusing finger when we are dealing with so serious an opponent. Instead, everyone pulls for one another. The differences among us are abundant, but we are all quick to encourage the struggling or give helpful information to the newcomer. We feel we are all in the same boat.
As fine a solution as ‘dying’ is to societal unrest, it is still not ‘the solution.’ Our support group is quite imperfect… and we realize that even if the cure for cancer is discovered today, we’re still going to die. Though few like to discuss death, it is our common destiny. God calls it the ‘last enemy’ and He is the only One who can defeat it.
The Holy Spirit wants every individual to know that apart from God’s solution we are already dead – separated from Him, the perfect Father. His Son is ‘The Solution.’ If we will humbly turn from our own ways and put our faith in the Lord Jesus, we will find life.
If dying people in a support group dare not argue or fight, how much more unified should those be who stand at the foot of the cross, trusting the Innocent One who died in our place? And when we realize He took away our sin and defeated death, should we not offer ourselves as those who simply want to carry out His good plans? Praise God for the Gospel.
“As for you, you were dead in your sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:1-10