June 2006
THE MEANING OF LIFE
As we enter into the month of June, we find ourselves
getting caught up in the business of summer. It is a
time of memorial, a time of graduation, and the time
for the West Michigan Annual Conference. Also quickly
approaching is the youth trip to the Ichthus music
festival and the special wedding renewal service on
the 25th, not to mention all the things we do in this
active season; a myriad of things that compete for our
time and our energy.
If we’re not careful we can find ourselves so busy
with stuff – so caught up in the onslaught of
activities – that we lose what is truly important. I
think of Billy Crystal in the movie, “City Slickers”,
playing the part of a bored baby boomer. One day he
visits his son’s class at school with the other dads,
to tell them about his job selling advertising time on
the radio when he suddenly reflects on life and breaks
out into a monologue directed at the class of
bewildered kids:
“Value this time in your life, kids, because this is
the time in your life when you still have your
choices. It goes by fast.
“When you're a teenager, you think you can do
anything and you do. Your twenties are a blur.
Thirties you raise your family, you make a little
money, and you think to yourself, ‘What happened to my
twenties?’
“Forties, you grow a little potbelly, you grow
another chin. The music starts to get too loud, one of
your old girlfriends from high school becomes a
grandmother.
“Fifties, you have a minor surgery – you'll call it a
procedure, but it's a surgery. Sixties, you'll have a
major surgery, the music is still loud, but it doesn't
matter because you can't hear it anyway.
“Seventies, you and the wife retire to Fort
Lauderdale. You start eating dinner at 2:00 in the
afternoon, you have lunch around 10:00, breakfast the
night before, spend most of your time wandering around
malls looking for the ultimate soft yogurt and
muttering, ‘How come the kids don't call? How come the
kids don't call?’
“The eighties, you'll have a major stroke, and you
end up babbling with some Jamaican nurse who your wife
can't stand, but who you call mama. Any questions?”
As I sit here and think about graduates preparing to
make the biggest transition of their lives and the
choices that they will make, I think of Jesus’ prayer
for his disciples as he faced his own death. In the
17th chapter of John, Jesus said, “I will remain in
the world no longer, but they are still in the world,
and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by
the power of your name – the name you gave me – so
that they may be one as we are one. Father, the time
has come. Glorify your Son, that your son may glorify
you. For you granted him authority over all people
that he might give eternal life . . . and this is
eternal life: that they may know you, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
It is in this third verse that Jesus delivers the
meaning of eternal life and in essence the meaning of
life itself. He says, “Now this is eternal life: that
they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom you have sent.” In essence, Jesus says,
“the meaning of life is this: that you have a
relationship with God, and me his Son, Jesus Christ.”
And that’s the long and short of it! Jesus knew that
his time was short and these men he had chosen, that
he had taught; these men he loved would soon be on
their own. He would no longer be there to lead them.
He knew that life would not be easy for them or for
us.
I think of those parents who have worked so hard to
raise their kids. Parents who know their children are
about to enter into the world on their own; out of
their watchful eye. They won’t be able to protect them
as they had before, but that’s how it’s always been;
it’s how it is meant to be as one generation nurtures
and prepares the next to take their place.
The world can be a scary place when we inadvertently
get caught up in all the business around us. I can’t
begin to tell you how much easier and fuller life is
when we let our faith in Christ permeate all that we
are and stand firm in our relationship with God. When
we truly love God with all that we are and put him
first in all aspects of our lives, everything else
falls neatly into place. We can live life to the
fullest; loving God and each other with no regrets.
Grace and Peace, The Rev. Rob Hughes
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O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing