What is Your Life? -Paul Tuttle

What is your life?

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit’ - yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring.  What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” - James 4:13-14

“Only one life, ‘twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last” - C.T. Studd

My time here in Congo has caused me to reflect more upon this verse.  Life is short, moreover eternity is infinite and final.  The United States is a wonderful country in many respects.  The freedom and material blessings we enjoy are truly gifts from the Lord.  Our individualism and wealth can be stumbling block or an opportunity.  Jesus and the apostle Paul often spoke to the many dangers of wealth, but at the same time Paul charges the rich to be generous and ready to share in order to take a hold of that which is truly life (1 Tim 6:17-19).  Christ said much is expected from those who have been given much (Luke 12:48), and to store up treasures in heaven and not on earth (Matt 6:19-21).

It is very easy in America to store up treasures on earth rather then in heaven as we live in a society where we are bombarded daily by the materialism and death is usually something that happens in old age.  Congo is a war torn country that lacks basic infrastructure and hence is plagued by disease, poverty, corruption, and death.  As much as we Americans say we understand that death is a fact of life, the Congolese understand this much more.  The wealth disparity between the United States and Congo is stark to say the least.  Thus, the wealth disparity and common occurrence of death has forced me to reevaluate my life.  What is my life? 

The word “gospel” literally means good news.  It is good news that Jesus Christ died for us on the cross and has therefore paid the due penalty for our sins.  God gives us grace and mercy through Christ.  Grace is getting something we do not deserve and mercy is not getting what we do deserve.  Through Christ’s work on the cross, God gives us the grace of eternal life and the mercy of escaping eternal damnation. 

The more I understand the depth of the gospel, that is, the more I understand the love of God shown on the cross for a sinner like me (Eph 3:14-19), the more I will strive to store up treasures in heaven rather than on earth.  Whether we are a missionary in Congo or in our own neighborhood in the United States, these eternal treasures are found through the participation of God’s work through prayer, money, and time.  Life is short and we have been given much in the United States and much will be expected from the Lord.  To truly live means to daily die to yourself and to live for the glory of Jesus Christ.