January 25, 2022
Many books today focus on self-improvement. Everyone wants to change for the better. Americans will spend millions of dollars this year in their search for practical solutions to their problems. Many will move from one fad to another, looking for advice on how to live and for answers to perplexing questions.
Unfortunately, much of the advice being dispensed through television, radio, and print these days is highly unreliable. It is based on popular opinion and current thinking. Therein lies a problem, because today’s “pop psychology” will be discarded next year for a new approach or therapy.
Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free!” Lasting freedom from personal hang-ups comes from building our lives on the truth. Only the Bible can be depended on completely to provide truthful insights into the causes and cures for our personal problems. God’s Word has stood the test of time. It is just as relevant and applicable today as it was thousands of years ago. It contains the answers to life’s most difficult questions.
However, it is not enough to simply say, “The Bible is the answer.” It is important for Christians to show how the Bible answers life’s questions. … The great evangelist D. L. Moody once said, “The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives.”
When Jesus taught, his intention was that those who listened would “go and do likewise.” He aimed for specific actions and commitments. … Why are there so many biographical stories in the Bible? The apostle Paul said, “Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”1 God gave us these examples from people’s lives for two reasons.
First, they are given to teach us. It is always wise to learn from our own experiences, but it is even wiser to learn from the experiences of others. It is usually less painful too! By applying the principles illustrated in the lives of Bible characters, we can avoid making some of the same costly mistakes they made.
Second, God gave us these stories to encourage us. We are encouraged by the fact that he chooses to use ordinary people to accomplish his plans—in spite of their weaknesses and failures and sometimes mixed motives. That gives us hope that God can work in our lives also!—Rick Warren2
Many people between the ages of thirty and sixty—whatever their stature in the community and whatever their personal achievements—undergo what can truly be called a second journey. A man can have piled up an impressive portfolio of dollars and honors, get his name in Who’s Who, and then wake up one morning asking, “Is it all worth it?” … However it happens, such people feel confused and even lost. They can no longer keep life in working order. They are dragged away from chosen and cherished patterns to face strange crises. This is their second journey.
Second journeys usually end quietly with a new wisdom and a coming to a true sense of self that releases great power. The wisdom is that of an adult who has regained equilibrium, stabilized, and found fresh purpose and new dreams. It is a wisdom that gives some things up, lets some things die, and accepts human limitations. It is a wisdom that realizes: I cannot expect anyone to understand me fully. It is wisdom that admits the inevitability of old age and death. It is a wisdom that has faced the pain caused by parents, spouse, family, friends, colleagues, business associates, and has truly forgiven them and acknowledged with unexpected compassion that these people are neither angels nor devils, but only human.
The second journey begins when we know we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the morning program. We are aware that we only have a limited amount of time left to accomplish that which is really important—and that awareness illumines for us what really matters, what really counts. This conviction provides a new center… and is often accompanied by a second call from the Lord Jesus.
The second call invites us to serious reflection on the nature and quality of our faith in the gospel of grace, our hope in the new and not yet, and our love for God and people. The second call is a summons to a deeper, more mature commitment of faith where the naiveté, first fervor, and untested idealism of the morning and the first commitment have been seasoned with pain, rejection, failure, loneliness, and self-knowledge…
This is what the second call of Jesus Christ means today: a summons to a new and more radical leap in hope, to an existential commitment to the Good News of the wedding feast.—Brennan Manning3
Being a Christian can sure feel like an uphill fight all the way. When you think about all that Jesus said and you try to actually apply it to your life, it’s really tough. Why? Because it doesn’t come naturally. So much of what He taught goes against the grain of our nature as human beings. Look at the list below and ask yourself if what Jesus said in the following verses comes naturally to you.
“Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you.”4 “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”5 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth.”6
Jesus said these things (and a lot more), and He expects us to actually do them. That’s the kicker. He really meant that you are supposed to do these things. And they’re hard! Obviously, if you are going to be a follower of Jesus, it’s going to cost you.
Why would anyone be willing to follow Him, considering how hard it is? There are a lot of good reasons, but I’ll mention just two.
(1) Because the man who said these things is God. Here was Jesus, the Word of God, the expression of the Father, walking the earth saying these things. If He was expressing God’s thoughts, if He was articulating the way God thinks about things, if He was telling mankind what God thought was important, or which of man’s actions or attitudes were valuable to God, then it’s a good idea to seriously consider trying to do what He said—even if it’s hard.
I’m pretty sure He knew that living what He said and following Him would be hard, because He was also human and underwent all the temptations we do. But He said what He said anyway.
He had to know that a lot of what He asked of us as disciples would go against natural human instinct. Humans tend to be proud; if someone hits us or steals from us or takes advantage of us in business, we often feel like retaliating in some way. We’re often selfish, or at least self-serving, by nature. Because it’s natural to be that way, it’s difficult not to be.
Yet Jesus was clearly trying to show that He expected us to act in ways that don’t conform to our human nature. I’d say He was intentionally challenging us by giving us a glimpse of how He wants us to be. After all, He did say, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.”7 So there was some expectation that we would try to do just that—even if it’s hard.
(2) The second reason is a little less noble than doing it because God Himself said it, and that is, “What’s in it for me?”
You’ve got to think long-term—very long-term. It’s wise to not only make do for now, but also to put something forward for then. And then is a very long time. When you’re thinking about what you’re going to get, you want to look forward to the future, to invest now for then.
It’s pretty clear in Scripture that there are rewards given in the afterlife that are connected to how we lead our temporal lives.8 Jesus clearly states that we should build up treasure in heaven in Matthew 6:20, when He says: “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal.”9
There’s a clear case made in the Scriptures that we will be rewarded, both in this life and the next, for doing the things that Jesus said we should do—even though they are hard. Perhaps the fact that they are so hard has something to do with why we are rewarded by God for doing them. We’re going to live forever. It’s wise to invest in the future.—Even if it’s hard.—Peter Amsterdam
Published on Anchor January 2022. Read by John Laurence.
Music by Michael Dooley.
1 Romans 15:4 NIV.
2 Rick Warren, God’s Answers to Life’s Difficult Questions (Zondervan, 2006).
3 Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel (Multnomah, 1990).
4 Luke 6:27–28 NASB.
5 Mark 16:15 NKJV.
6 Matthew 6:19 NIV.
7 John 14:23.
8 Revelation 22:12; Colossians 3:23–24.
9 NASB.
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