Jesus Army: Magazine - Rant and rave

HOW WILL you be remembered? Sorry to ask a morbid sounding question, but...what would they write on your gravestone? Ever thought of it?

What will they say of you when you’re gone?

Were they to be inscribed with people’s lifetime achievements, the stones in our municipal graveyards might read: “He lived for Arsenal” or “She loved Coronation Street”. “He had several messy relationships that failed.”

Depressing, isn’t it?

Okay, so we can’t all aspire to Alexander-like greatness (he had conquered the world by the end of his 33-year old life), but what can we aspire to? And what is worth living for?

“The mass of men”, said Thoreau, “lead lives of quiet desperation”. Is it possible to escape the seeming futility of our existence?

An inscription I saw in a Leeds church remains with me. “He was a zealous promoter of vital Christianity.” “Vital.” Alive, kicking. Something passionate, breathless, necessary.

Two millennia after His coming, the penniless carpenter from Nazareth is still finding men and women who desire to live for eternity on earth. People who want to pour out their lives, not for work or family or entertainment, but for a greater cause – that of the risen Son of God.

Will we rise to the challenge of being extraordinary for Christ?

Where in our flaccid, self-satisfied and risk-averse society are those who will truly travel the hard, the dangerous, the despised road of commitment to the highest Name? Those who, in the words of Spender’s poem:

“... in their lives fought for life. Who wore at their hearts the fire’s centre.

Born of the sun, they travelled a short while towards the sun,

And left the vivid air signed with their honour.”

To bear the name of a follower of King Jesus Christ is the highest mark of lasting honour that anyone can wear. Dare you live for anything less?

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