by Kevin Burton
One of my teachers planted a question in our minds: “Where is the front?”
His idea was that once you know, and everyone agrees on, which side of an object or a building is the front, you can go on describing the object, giving instructions about it. You have it in its proper place.
That was helpful.
You can also get where I am going today by evoking that famous musical question, “What’s it all about, Alfie?” Sub in your own name for Alfie.
At one time I had pen pals from all over the world. One pen-pal organization sent me a form. In order for them to find suitable like-minded pals for me, I had to answer a lot of questions about who I was, what were my goals, boil it all down.
That was helpful. I found some contradictions, some things that pulled me in opposite directions.
So I have a form for you to fill out today. It’s much shorter than the pen-pal thing I had. It’s borrowed from the Apostle Paul and his letter to the Philippians.
Paul wrote, “For me to live is Christ…” (Phil. 1:21).
Of course Paul’s sentence ends with “and to dies is gain.” We’ll get to that in a bit.
The question is, “to live is ____-“ Fill in the blank.
Just like knowing what the front of an object is orients you to everything else concerning that object, knowing exactly what it is you are living for makes everything else you are dealing with fall into place nicely.
Now this is not a classroom setting where I am asking you to raise your hand, declare what you are living for, and justify it to peers and professors.
You are alone before God reading this, and answering this question.
You will do yourself a tremendous favor if you will respond honestly, wrestle some things down in your mind if need be, and get to the bottom of it.
You have to know where the front of your life is, in order to deal with the “and to die is gain” part of Phil. 1:21.
“To live is Christ” must be joined to “and to die is gain” or, I say to you, it makes no sense.
For apart from Christ, to die is not gain. This latter friends, is a tremendous understatement on my part.
So there’s a song, “My Way,” performed by many, most famously by Frank Sinatra. I’ve seen clips of him singing My Way where the audience responds with soft, reverent applause, for what is considered an American standard.
The song talks about facing “my final curtain” and goes on to say, “I did it my way.”
How stupid is that? I mean really.
If I did it my way, rest assured, there is no final curtain. My way goes on to wherever I want it to go. My way means I am the one who draws final curtains, if they exist at all.
Pay respect to the outsized talent of Sinatra if you like, but let’s be honest about this song, peel it apart and show it for what it is.
And let’s be honest about final curtains. You’ve got one coming, so do I.
To live is_______? Respond.
If by God’s grace you can truly come to say “to live is Christ,” it answers a lot of questions about what you should do with your time and affections, talents and treasure.
If the cares of this world, the poisons, pressures and predators, cause you to take your eyes off “to live is Christ,” for a time, then run, run, back to that place where He is standing with open arms.
If you can not say “to live is Christ,” if you’re filling in the blank some other way, your “I did it my way” comes with a hellish asterisk.”
You will have your way, to a degree, until such time as you don’t. And then it’s God’s way.
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away” (Mark 13:31 KJV).
Page 7 