Growing up seems paradoxical. It is a thought that has plagued me for some time. A fuller knowledge of life leads to a fuller knowledge of death. Logically, to know light is to know darkness; to know fulfillment is to know hunger; to know joy is to know sorrow.
To know life is to know death. To live, is to die.
The psalmist writes, "yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." The apostle Paul proclaims, "I die every day."
This is not unique to my circumstances; as we live more, we experience more death, physically and spiritually.
Christian community is built upon death. Death to selfishness and isolationism. Death to sinfulness and control. As we share life in community, we also share death. Gracefully though, our joy is not rooted in death, but in life through
death. "Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also
live with him."
As we live more fully in Christian community, we experience more death. As we age, we are more keenly aware of physical death through the deaths of friends and acquaintances. But greater still, we daily direct our eyes toward graceful salvation from what is broken, sinful, and burdened - dying to ourselves - that we may gain Christ and the life that He brings.
And this brings me great joy for to share life together is to share death together, which shall bring life.
No comments:
Post a Comment