I have to prepare a message for next week’s elementary chapel about the Easter story. I’m not quite sure why, but speaking at chapel always seems to make me a little nervous. I want to share something that will make a difference in the students’ lives, and that is a lot of pressure! I have much admiration and respect for pastors, youth, and children’s ministers that do this on a weekly basis.
I feel as if the Easter story is the most important story anyone could ever tell. It has the ability to be life changing for those who hear the message. I’m overwhelmed because I don’t really know where to start, or how to tell this story. So many of our students have heard this story many times, and I am not sure how to tell it in a new way.
As I pray, and think about what to say, and how to say it, one theme keeps coming to my heart and mind. This theme is from a scene in a movie Tuck Everlasting; the movie is about a family who has discovered a spring of water that has the ability to give a person everlasting life. The Tuck family drank from the spring without knowing its capability, and now they can never die. A young girl meets the Tuck family and finds out about their secret. She has to make a choice and decide if she would rather drink from the spring so she could live forever, or go on and live a normal human life and eventually die. The father of the Tuck family in the movie takes the girl aside and explains to her that what the Tucks have, you can’t really call it living; they just are. He goes on to tell her not to be afraid of dying, be afraid of the unlived life.
How many of us are afraid of death? If we were honest, I think we could admit that it is a legitimate fear of everyone. Christians have less to fear than others because of our heavenly eternity, but we still do not like to think of the finality of death. Maybe we have made peace with the real possibility of our own deaths, but what about the possibility of the people we love most dying?
There are several valuable insights we can take from the movie Tuck Everlasting. First of all, there is a spring of everlasting life available to all of us. That spring is found in Jesus Christ, the savior of mankind. John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” When God sent His Son into the world, He provided a way to save us from death and give us eternal life.
Another valuable insight is the idea of not being afraid of dying, but of the unlived life. What does it mean to live an unlived life? I think living an unlived life means, living a life that is outside of your destined purpose. I’m not quite sure why this next particular image keeps coming to mind, but I have to share this somewhat humorous and disturbing parallel.
One of my grandfathers was a taxidermist, on the side of his other profession, when I was growing up. For those of you who do not know what a taxidermist is, it is a person who prepares and preserves the skins of animals and stuffs them into a lifelike form (Dictionary definition). When we would go to visit my grandfather, we would often go to his shop to see his newest projects. That shop had to be one of the creepiest places for a little child to visit. I was surrounded by numerous lifelike, dangerous animals. There were bears, deer, wolves, etc. all standing in a lifelike pose looking at me. Although these animals look like they are alive, they are certainly not, and they never will be again. These animals once had a purpose much different than the one they have now. They once used to wildly roam around this world; they all had their own part to play in the great “circle of life”. However, now their purpose is much different, now are admired for their beauty and fierceness, but they are also very dead.
I believe that we all have a purpose in life, and our greatest purpose is to reflect the image of our Savior. Jesus Christ conquered death so that we could have eternal life. He took our blame so we could be made holy in the sight of God. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” Romans 3:24-25
This is the reason that we as Christians celebrate Easter. Jesus died to save us. As I reflect on this truth, and think about the sacrifice Jesus made, I feel a burden to continue to seek out God’s purpose for my life; seek out how I can most reflect the image of Christ. I don’t want to live a life admiration for my accomplishments like the stuffed animals, which is something I am often tempted of doing. Why live a life of being admired by others for a few moments while they are in the room with your mounted figure, when instead you can live an adventurously wild life with Jesus Christ. The former may satisfy your desire for admiration, but the latter will satisfy your soul!
To end my thoughts, I would like to encourage everyone to take a drink from Jesus’ spring of everlasting life. Acknowledge His sacrifice and believe in His love. Ask for His forgiveness, and live your life. Don’t be afraid of dying, be afraid of living the unlived life!
No comments:
Post a Comment