Love. Life. Light.

As the world gets darker and darker people struggle and strive that much harder to find meaning and fulfillment in their short lives. As we age we see our youthful exuberance, energy and beauty fading, and that's all the proof we need to know our mortality is signaling the end is coming and getting closer.

I point people to the Lord because in Him are love, life and light. Let me tell you a little bit about each of these and how you can have the assurance that I have when it comes to what follows after this body stops living.

Love is what we intuitively know we want and need. We want to love and be loved. This is where we get our personal value. If we are loved unconditionally, we want that love to continue and we want to please the one that loves us. But it isn't easy, in fact it is risky.

CS Lewis said, "“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”

The Bible teaches us that we were given our lives as a gift. But we know this gift will disappear.? What good is it then if its here today and gone tomorrow? This life is the test for whether you will gain life eternal. This life is filled with many trials and temptations, and most of us finally give up and give in, thinking these pleasures will provide us with a reason for being. But therein lies the trap. Once we give in to sin we become a slave to it. From sexual addiction to gambling and alcoholism, from the love of money, conspicuous consumption and materialism, from education that puffs up pride, to excessive exercise to hone and tone that body that still continues to give way to gravity. We are meant to live eternally, but to do so we must yield to God's command rather than temptation. But that command is not too difficult. It consists of solely believing in the Cross of Christ, where all of our sins were put away. Believing gives us the hope of life and heaven.

Light, in the context of the true and living God, is more than just the absence of darkness. It refers to revelation, to truth, to understanding, in turn leading to wisdom. Once we yield to the Lord, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our heart. The Word of God becomes the basis for how we begin to see things. Over time we realize that the truth of what it means to live and move and have our being, is quite different and even contrary to the wisdom of the world. For the world, chasing after money, success, pleasure, and entertainment, are traps that drown mens' souls, and those who have pursued these will finally admit that in the end they were all empty, meaningless, and counterfeits.

If you're wallowing in self-grief, don't choose self-help books to find a way out. Those will only trap you further. Choose instead to deny yourself, and ask the Lord to replace His will with your own. Once you accept Christ, you will find that your life may be alienated from the world, but the peace and joy that passes understanding will give you assurance that the strait and narrow path you have chosen is indeed the right, best and useful purpose for your life here and later in heaven.

Choose wisely...~r