I guess I think of myself as generally a smart person. I mean, not in a conceited way or anything. But in life, there are just some things I don’t understand. Women, for instance. I really don’t even know what to say about ya’ll except the more I try to understand you, the more I am left clueless. And the less I try to understand you, the more I am amazed. (Did that even make any sense?) Another more serious thing I don’t understand is tragedy. Virginia Tech. More eloquent people than I have already said a lot about the tragedy. I guess the first thoughts that went through my head were about the shooter. What led him to this? What was going on in his life? I don’t understand any of it. I watched the movie Hotel Rwanda the other weekend. It was such a great movie, but it made me really sad. I don’t understand how 700,000 people can be slaughtered while the rest of the world ignores the injustice.
When we hear of tragedies like these or go through our own, sometimes we say things like, “Oh I can’t wait until I get to Heaven.” There’s even an old hymn, “When we all get to Heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be.” I guess we say these things because we know that in Heaven there will be no more war or tears or starving children or mass suicide bombings. We believe that in Heaven, we will have life as it was intended to be before the Fall. And I agree with these ideas about Heaven. But sometimes these ideas about future glory impact our lives in a way that really goes against the things Jesus said. For instance, for many Christians it’s easy to not get involved in humanitarian efforts because they know one Day all will be made right. It’s easy to neglect the present world when you only have your eyes on the future one. When Christianity is just about getting to Heaven, we take away from the message of Jesus. Robb Bell says, “What happens is the Gospel becomes about another world and this world greatly suffers.” Don’t get me wrong, there is a future hope that we should be eagerly awaiting, but there is also a present world that needs our help too.
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full,” is something Jesus declares in John chapter 10. I believe that this life that Jesus spoke of is something that happens now, and not in some distant future. My life with Christ starts when I accept His love for me, not when I get to Heaven. There are bumper stickers out there, you know the ones. “Incase of Rapture, this car will be unmanned.” This may just be me, but this sticker represents this anticipation to leave this world behind. I can’t wait to get out of here. To me, this kind of thinking is not that Christ-like. Think about it. While He was here, did He ever say, “Man, you people are so screwed up. I can’t wait until I get to go back home.” Of course not. What did He say He was here to do? In Luke 4:18-19 Jesus says, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” Jesus was here to teach, to heal, to love, to work, to help. So if Jesus is the ultimate example for my life, shouldn’t I be doing the things He did?
In the end, God restores the world to the way He meant it to be. So, that means it will never be fully restored until He does it. But since we are His children, since we are of His kingdom, shouldn’t we be trying to do a little restoring too? I am not judging anyone, but let’s face it, there are many of us out there who accepted Jesus just to avoid Hell. Now we’re just waiting around until God calls us home. That’s not the way He wants us to live, though. God wants us to get involved in this world and make a positive impact on this world for His Kingdom, and there is so much more to this than just getting ready for Heaven. It means bringing little pieces of Heaven here to Earth. It means actually loving your enemies and making peace a priority. It means getting involved in relationships so that no one ever feels alone. It means feeding the hungry, supplying for the poor, and telling enemies that war is not the answer. It means living our lives the way in which Jesus lived His. Walk in love…
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