The more of this book i read, the more i think this may become my favorite book. The more i read, the more i feel not only challenged in my walk with God. But in my mindset in everyday life. i doubt my analysis of this chapter will be as blow-by-blow as it was for the first chapter (which you can find a link to here: Word for Word: chapter 1 “Stop Praying” (Crazy love) ) because this topic is not only a powerful one, but an extremely vast one.
You can tell this is going to be a heavy one by the first line:
“You could die before you finish this chapter. I could die while you’re reading it. At any moment.”
It’s a terrifying thought from a human perspective, the idea that the next breath we take could be our last. That our next action could be the last thing we do upon this earth, in fact i find it humbling, that our time on this earth could be over before it’s really begun.
We can forget that we are not in fact invincible, and all of us must take our final breath sooner or later to meet our creator. But this humbling isn’t always a bad thing.
I love the follow-up that comes a bit later on in this chapter, because it’s something that is relevant in all of our lives. we move on to the stresses of life and how we can let them effect our relationship with the living God, and our physical health. And that’s when the author brings up a passage from Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the lord always. I will say it again always!” and links this into our arrogance, when we allow our problems outweigh our trust in the almighty and to truly rejoice in him!
As someone who is prone to worrying and over thinking pretty much every important situation in my life, this is a real challenge to me. And one that i’m called to move past in order to rejoice in the lord always!
after skipping ahead a bit, we get onto an analogy that i am a huge fan of, because it’s one that i use about my own life a lot actually. And that’s the idea that life is like a movie. Now don’t get me wrong, i don’t use it because i think my life is exciting or worthy of being something that people would come in droves to see, but more because i’m a visual thinker, i find it so much easier to explain things in pictures, rather than anything else. Ironic really considering that i can’t draw but run a blog! But enough of that.
Francis takes this idea of life being a movie, and really expands on it, putting this thought of the creation of the universe, the fall of man, the death and ascension of the lamb, and lastly Revelation as a movie, and who’s the main character? Not us, but God of course! This is summed up perfectly in the quote:
“How is it possible that we live as though it’s about us? Our scenes in the movie, our brief lives, fall somewhere between the time Jesus ascends into heaven (acts) and when we all worship God on His throne (revelation). We only have our two-fifths of a second long scene to live. I don’t know about you, but i want my two-fifths of a second to be about my making much of God.”
the next couple of pages really need to be read, i know that may seem like a bit of a cop-out, but these stories of people trusting in the living God before going to meet him, need to be experienced first hand, and i won’t be able to do them justice in just summing them up, so if you haven’t already pick up this amazing book.
But i’m going to finish with a quote that is a challenge to us all not only as people of God, but as human beings.
“When we face the holy God “nice” isn’t what we will be concerned with, and it definitely isn’t what He will be thinking about. Any complements you received on earth will be gone; all that will be left is truth.”
Isn’t this a difficult concept to grasp? That when we go to meet and be judged by the Lord of all, none of the pleasantries that we’ve exchanged among each other will matter, none of our “nice” words will mean a thing. Our call isn’t to be nice, but to be kind. These are two different things even if they get confused a lot, but the difference is a big one.
See being nice is having a chat, giving them a pat on the back and telling what they want to hear. Being kind is so much more, it’s telling someone when they’re wrong, it’s helping them grow, it’s being there when no one else has time, and it’s truly being loving, rather than a facade hidden behind a smile. And honestly this might be the reason i love this book thus far.
Every concept that has been brought up is a challenge in love, it’s calling us to be better than we are, not by Mr Chan claiming he is better than us, or free from these things, but by getting along side us, walking with us deeper in to these truths he’s bringing to our attention. And i’d rather have something that challenges me in an attempt of kindness, that makes me a better person in Christ than a book that tells me “you’re doing fine, it’s everyone else that is wrong” and for that, Francis, i thank you. Here’s praying that the challenges continue. See you next week for chapter 3 and as always…
Keep reading and May God Bless you.
Life after darkness 