This the third part of The Upside Down World of Theology.

Chapter Two

Life is rough, and then we die

            This one really sounds like one of the classic signs of depression.  But it isn’t.  Over the years I have discovered that there is a great deal of difference between depression and realism.  And our society wants very little to do with realism.  In fact, to many realism is defined as depression! 

            We would prefer to live in a world of advertising slogans and upbeat theology, even if it all has little to do with how we live.  We have divorced what we believe from how we live to the point that we can no longer tell a Christian by their fruit.  We claim to be Christian by what we believe, failing to understand that what we really believe cannot help but affect our actions and form our way of living.

Life is rough!

            Look at it any way and life is rough!  One person told me that the only thing we know for sure about life is that we won’t get out of it alive.  From potty training to potty training we live our lives out from being dependent upon our parents to being dependent upon our children. 

            We educate ourselves to prepare for the world of work.  We work to prepare for the day when we will get married and have children.  We raise our children for the day when they grow from us and go on to their own lives as God intends.  We then prepare for the day when our children will have to take care of us as we took care of them. 

            Growing older means the fear of Alzheimer's, the myriad of others diseases that threaten us, or of not being able to do certain things.  Growing older often means watching as our loved ones leave us to be with the Lord (hopefully). 

            This is not to leave out the many times of joy and celebration, or to say that life is without the great fulfillment in the love we share with God and with others.  There is a great joy in watching your children grow up and grow in the Lord.  To see them discover their gifts and graces and to grow in them.

            There is also the spiritual growth that is such a blessing.  As we grow to discover God and grow closer to Him in our life we see God’s great work in our lives, our families, our communities, our country and the world.  We come to see the glory of God in the stars above, and in the diversity of life around us.  His greatness is shown to us in everyday life and through the lives of others.  Prayers are answered in ways that could only be the glory and power of God!

            But even the spiritual side can be rough.  Even after coming to Jesus Christ and receiving forgiveness from our sin we wrestle every day with the sin in our lives.  Like Paul we say,

“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.    Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.”  (Romans 7:19-20 RSV)

Can you imagine the horror of having to face eternity with this spiritual battle on our hands?  To know that the effects of sin would never be totally taken from our body and soul?

            Before I became a Christian I was an alcoholic for several years.  Because of my drinking I developed a blood disease which killed off or distorted my bone marrow and caused me to become a free bleeder.  The doctors told me I had about 3 months to live.  There was also a great deal of pain as parts of my brain were dying from the bleeding.

            To this day I struggle with my memory and my health is still impaired because of it.  It would be horrible to have to struggle with this forever.  It is hard enough to have to live out the effects of our sins in this life.  How much harder to think we would never know relief from the suffering.

            In James we are taught that trials are not optional! 

“2 ¶ My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.” (James 1:2-6 NKJV)

            Indeed, the trials and struggles in our life are the tools God uses to strengthen us and draw us to faith and wisdom!

And then we die!

            After the Fall God closes the door on the Garden of Eden and blocks the way to the Tree of Life.

“Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever"--    therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.    He drove out the man; and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”  (Genesis 3:22-24 RSV)

We so often see this as part of the punishment, but I believe that this is the blessing of God.  God drove them out so they wouldn’t live forever, or at least existing like we are now, getting weaker with each year as the effects of sin wears us down.  So we wouldn’t be struggling forever in our physical bodies with the spiritual battle with sin with no hope of it ever ending.  Can you imagine a world filled with nursing homes where the patient’s couldn’t die but just get weaker and more helpless!  That would become hell itself!

            By keeping us from the Tree of Life God gives us the hope of new life through Jesus Christ!  A life where the old body is the seed from which a better life will come into being.  Where we will leave the husk of our sin behind in the ground and go on to a new life where even our body will blossom anew in a new world!

            Rather than being depressing, this is the realism of hope!  The hope that we will put off the sinful flesh and receive a new body of which Jesus Himself was the first fruit!  The hope for Christians is death becomes a friend that will take away the tiredness and the struggle, the weakness and the illness as well as the pain and the tears.

            So maybe it should be life is tough and then THANK GOD we die!

What part does God play in your suffering?

What part does suffering play in your life?

What part does death play in your life?