To Live is Christ

Do you remember your first “crush”? Think about the first time you fell in love. Do you remember the exhilaration, the joy, the pleasure? Your thoughts were consumed with that certain someone. You thought about that person day and night. You wanted to be with that person all the time. It was difficult to go to work or to class. You laid awake at night thinking about them. Do you remember doodling their name? Do you remember linking it with your own? Sit back right now and remember.

There is a time in most people’s lives when they make the move from thinking about self only to thinking about self coupled with that special other person. It is a subtle transition, but you begin to consider their needs and wants and adjust your thinking to accommodate them. This is normal human maturing process. There comes a time when we link ourselves to the other permanently through marriage. Everything changes. You now live for another. It is exciting and terrifying all at the same time. Very often this leads to the addition of children and your thinking broadens still further.

We are always at risk. The lines between the other and self get cloudy and even disappear. This is normal. Yet it does present the opportunity for problems. Few of us are always good at sharing our lives, our desires and our wishes. We tend to self-interests and if our partners are not good at sharing we feel taken advantage at times. Relationships are messy. We don’t always play well with others nor do they with us. Yet, the rewards of a shared relationship with another are so rich that it is worth the risk. We keep at it, trying to find that perfect balance.

Have you ever spent time with someone or with a couple that have been married more than 50 years? They are so calm and peaceful. They even tend toward the giddy at times. It is a real pleasure just being around them. They have worked out this dance we call relationship and have found a balance. Self-identity is almost impossible without the other. Often when one dies, the partner follows soon thereafter simply because they cannot conceive of life nor perceive self without the other.

There are no mysteries here. God is a relational being. His self identity is the Trinity. God by His very identity is relational. He made human beings in His own image. He made us relational. Remember when He said, “it is not good for the man to be alone…” (Genesis 2:18) He then made a woman for the man, the perfect picture of the “image of God,” relationship.

Jesus came in the flesh to reveal God to us in terms we could understand. He lived His earthly life not in marital relationship with a woman, but in relationship with His heavenly Father. Marital relationship is great, but it is only a picture of something much better. The apostle Paul found the real truth. Rather than marriage, he discovered that a relationship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords was far superior. “Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: it is good for them to stay unmarried as I am…” (1 Corinthians 7:8) I am not dismissing the great blessing of marriage. It is the normal human relationship and I love being married.

Jesus taught this. "Don't you know me… even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…” (John 14:9-11)

Jesus often spent the entire night praying to the Father. He had done so the night before he chose the twelve disciples and designated them apostles. He did not act on His own, but He did what the Father instructed. This teaches us a great truth. A life lived in relationship with God through Jesus is one of total fulfillment. Marriage is the greatest of all human relationships, but it is only a picture of a relationship with Jesus. That is why He identifies Himself as the bridegroom and the church as His bride.

My goal is to live every moment in the awareness of the presence of Jesus Christ. In reality He is with us in the person of Holy Spirit. My task is to live in conscious awareness of His presence every moment. I talk with Him and listen to Him. I share my thoughts and my fears. I share my joys and my sorrows, my dreams and my disappointments. My goal is to surrender my self-consciousness to Him and only pick up His will. I want to disappear in Him that He only is visible. I want to be so much in Him that when my physical body dies there is no transition for me consciously. I want to so live in Him in this life that the spirit life is no different.

I have officiated at many funerals during my career as a minister of Jesus Christ. As I grow older and more mature in Jesus Christ I have often found myself feeling a bit envious of those deceased saints that have graduated to heaven. They have made it into the presence of the King. I am stuck here in this life. I no longer feel that way. I believe that we can attain the presence of the King right here in this life. The apostle Paul said it best, “…to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21) I ask you to join me in the Holy pursuit, To Live is Christ.