But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, FAITHFULNESS, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22, 23, NKJV).
Pitfalls and Cliffhangers
Pitfalls and Cliffhangers
Uncertainty is almost always damaging, and the scope of damage is directly proportional to the significance of the stakes. It may not be so traumatizing for someone to be uncertain about a new hairstyle, but a potentially fatal illness is another matter entirely.
Given this, a good rule of thumb is: the more important the question, the more certainty is required in the answer.
"Daddy, what happens when you die?"
I have been asked that at one time or another by each one of my children. Now if you believe, as much of the world does except for a few foolishly confident atheists, that physical death is not the end of existence, but an entrance into another kind of life, then the answer you give to this question is profoundly important. And the authority upon which you base your answer is more important still, since it speaks directly to the validity and reliability of your answer. Add to this the proposition of an eternal afterlife, again something most of the world does believe, then the importance, authority, validity and reliability of your response increases exponentially to, well, Biblical proportions.
If, on the other hand, you believe that "you're born you live and you die" and there's absolutely no epilogue, eternal or otherwise (it turns out that very few people, except our intellectual superiors, actually do believe this) then how you chose to answer that child's question, if you even bother to have or interact with any children, is up to you. A suggested real uplifter on the way to your liquor cabinet is "When you die, nothing much happens, kid. Your body returns to Gaia to feed the worms."
Here's the thing though. What if you're wrong? Or more precisely, how certain are you of your answer? Are you willing to bet all eternity on it?
I am pretty sure that eternity is an irrevocably long time. It's kind of like stepping off the edge of a very sheer, very steep cliff edging an invisible bottomless pit. The decision once made can't be unmade, no matter how much regret you might feel on the way down, or how unbelieving you might have been as to the actual existence of either the cliff or the pit. Actually, every sane person understands that the cliff edge is there; hardly anyone knows someone who won't die sooner or later. But the real issue of certainty or uncertainty comes into play once you are inevitably pushed off the edge of the world.
The Bible teaches with unequivocally declared authority that falling off the edge of the world doesn't automatically result in descent. It is possible, instead, to ascend into whatever is the opposite of a bottomless pit. The Bible calls it Heaven, where God lives. That is very good news, indeed, if it's true. Or even possibly true.
"Daddy, what happens when you die?"
I think a good answer is this: "Well, honey, you leave the earth and either go up into light and life and joy, or down into despair and darkness. Forever."
Two additional questions usually follow, not necessarily in this order: "How do you know, Daddy?" And "What do ya' hafta to do to go up?"
Sometimes a third question arises, depending on the age and maturity of the questioner. It's this: Why? But the answer to that question goes beyond this post, because what this post is about is certainty. Scripture calls it FAITHFULNESS.
"There is only one way to enter Heaven, honey. Believe in Jesus - that He is the vey Son of God, that He became a Man to pay for your sins on the Cross so you won't have to, and that He rose from the grave after three days and now sits at the right hand of the Throne of God. As to how I know this is true, that's what God tells us in His Word. He promises that if we do those things, when we get pushed off the edge of the earth we will go up and not down. And we'll live forever and never have to say good-bye again."
"But how do we know that God will keep His promises, Daddy?"
"Because He is FAITHFUL honey. And He cannot lie. God is what faithful is. He knows everything and can do anything and when He says something or promises something, He means it. It HAS to happen. It can't NOT happen. Jesus said to His disciples that the sky and the earth will pass away, but not ONE WORD will fail that God has said. And if He created everything and knows everything and has all power there is NOTHING that can prevent His promise from coming true. Nothing."
"So you trust God, Daddy? Are you sure?"
"As sure as it's possible to be, honey. And there's one other thing, sweetheart."
"What, Daddy?"
"God loves us. And when you love somebody as much as God loves us, loving us enough to send His Son to die for us on the Cross, then you keep your word, no matter what. And because He's God, His word for it is all we need."
From the human perspective, we are to practice that same kind of no-matter-what FAITHFULNESS, and it has to come from God. It isn't something we can produce on our own. That doesn't mean that we will never not make good on our promises; only an omnipotent, omniscient Being can make that kind of a guarantee. But here's what it does mean. It means that as a child of God by faith, your word, your integrity, your reliability, transparency and honesty are as much a part of your existence and behavior as your lungs. It is mostly what you are above mostly everything else about you. When you commit to something you mean it, always, every time. No exceptions. No excuses. No hedging your bets.
This will have two immediate consequences if you cultivate this fruit of the Spirit in your life. One, it should make you think twice before spouting off about your intentions. Two, it should make you realize that you yourself are totally inadequate to live up to this standard. It is only Christ within you that even gets you in the running in the first place. And it is only through the continued surrendering of your will to His, will you have any hope of being this kind of faithful.
As a Christian man, woman or child, your word should be your bond. How's that for simple?
