It's amazing the things people kill themself over. With Christmas coming soon, I can already picture the lines. In just a couple weeks after the turkey dinner settles, people will head to the stores to get in line to get their bargains. Some will stand in line all night long to be ready for the early bird specials. The have to have the latest electronic gadget or outfit or whatever. What's funny is the very thing that they just had to have last Thanksgiving is worthless, worn out, or out of style this year.
That's only the half of it. Things that we think are so critical in our business will mean nothing as life comes to an end. When cancer strikes a family, position, power, money, your house, your Escalade or iphone or laptop doesn't really seem all that important. As you stand over the casket, all the things that once seemed pressing are irrelevant.
In this passage, Peter simply says, "Folks, it's all gonna burn some day." No matter how hard you try, you can't take it with you and all the things of this life will become meaningless. So what's worth living for anyway? Peter says your relationship with God is the most important thing, because it's the only thing that lasts. It's the only thing that will carry over to the next life.
The end of life will come like a lightening strike. A few years ago a friend of mine was on a mission trip to Guatemala with his wife. They had gone to minister to people in a remote area where Drs rarely visited. They cared for the sick, fed the hungry, shared God's Good News. But a nasty hurricane struck and the flooding began. They had only hours to get all the missionaries out.
They had tried to get out by trucks but the roads were washed out and the flood waters too high. The only plane they had could carry a handful at a time. Dale sent his wife on one of the early flights out. He had stayed until the last flight. But conditions worsened and they were unable to land at their designated airport. Their attempt to fly through the hurricane to an airport forty miles away ended in disaster. Their plane crashed into a mountain side killing everyone aboard.
But they weren't the only ones killed that day. The Day of Lord came like a thief in the night for 11,000 others who drowned due to the flooding that day. One day alive. The next day, dead. But we have a hope, a living hope Peter tells us in the book of 1 Peter. We look forward to the new heavens and new earth. For Dale and the people they led to Christ, they were ushered into the very presence of the King of Kings and got to see God face to face. His farm, his business, his gorgeous house all meaningless to him.
Less than two months before his untimely death, Dale and I had ridden together on a bus to DC and back for a Promise Keepers gathering on the mall. On our journey Dale shared with me how he was coming to realize that pursuing the things of God were the most important things of his life. That's why he decided to go on the missions trip to Guatemala. His only desire was that his sons would see the change in life and come to pursue Christ in the same way he was.
God, I want to found spotless and blameless when you come for me. I want to found diligent in your work. All else is going to burn. Lord, help me remember that today and tomorrow and the next day.
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