Red Pill, Blue Pill
Forgive me, I recently watched the Matrix so I just had to put that in there. Just like in the movie we are given a choice: red pill or blue pill, a or b, good or bad. But it’s not just a one time deal. We are faced with this decision multiple times per day. To sin or not to sin, that is the question.
Our goal is to get to Heaven. Every time we reject sin and say yes to God, we take another step up the mountain. But each time we mess up and give in to our temptations we slide a few steps back. I like the analogy of the mountain for more than one reason. In the Bible the mountain is where Moses goes up to be with God, but more importantly it’s always harder to climb up the mountain than to come back down. It’s always easier to choose sin over holiness. For every good thing we do, there are thousands of bad things.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” ~ Romans 6:23
God is calling us—continuously—to be saints. God wants us to be holy, to join with the “holy ones” in Heaven in their unending praise of Him. But again, it’s up to us whether we make it or not. We can’t blame God, our grandma, or anyone else. For all of our decisions have consequences. God loves us so much that he gives us free will to make our own decisions. Just like a father holds his child’s hands as he takes his first steps for fear that he might fall, God has given us guidelines for sainthood to keep us from “falling” into sin. But there’s only so much He can do. The father eventually has to let go so that the child can make his first steps on his own.
If Heaven Has a Waiting Room
We all have dreams and aspirations of what we want to achieve in our lives. But as Christians our primary goal must be to become saints. We all know what we have to do. We know what is required of us. But for some reason there’s always an excuse for why we aren’t holy enough.
If today was your last, would you still make excuses? If you knew that this was your last chance at holiness, would you live your life differently? You should live everyday as if it’s your last, because only God knows when it’s your turn to go. I don’t know about you, but when it’s my time I want to here His sweet voice calling my name. I want to raise my hand with joy and say “that’s me!” If Heaven has a waiting room, I don’t want to be the guy watching all the people come and go with smiles on their faces as I sit and watch reruns of I Love Lucy.
“When God is regarded as a secondary matter that can be set aside temporarily or permanently, on account of more important things, it is precisely these supposedly more important things that come to nothing.” ~ Pope Benedict XVI
It’s easy to make excuses for ourselves. We do it all the time. I often find myself “too busy” to pray. That’s the same thing as saying I’m “too busy” to talk to God. If I told my wife I was “too busy” to talk to her I would never hear the end of it. We have to look at our relationship with God as a love relationship. That means you talk to each other, you do nice things for each other, and you do all you can to show each other that you love each other and that nothing else matters. God does that for us. Why don’t we do the same for Him? Why do we treat God as some distant being? He is right there next us!
Keep Your Windshield Clean
I have a tree—actually it’s my neighbors tree—right over the driveway that drips sticky, sappy stuff all over my truck. Everytime I go somewhere it’s so difficult to see through the windshield. When I’m driving I find myself squinting to see what’s in front of me. It’s dangerous to drive with a dirty windshield.
So this past weekend I washed my truck and I decided I was going to start putting a cover on it when it’s parked in the driveway. When I got in the truck and started driving I told my wife how amazing it was to see so clearly. I was so used to the dirty windshield that I started to think that’s just how the world looked. But after it was clean I could actually see what was in front of me.
We often make excuses when it comes to our spiritual life. We all say we’d like to be closer to God. We all say that we’d like to improve our relationship with Him. We think about holiness as something we might achieve someday, but tomorrow is not guaranteed. We’re living like the future is promised to us, but that’s not the case. If we want to achieve holiness, we have to do something about it. We have t get out the soap and water to clean that windshield and realize that God is right there where He’s always been. He’s holding our hands as we attempt to climb that mountain. He’s telling “you can do it” with each step we take. He’s giving us a choice. He is showing us the path of holiness that leads to Heaven. What’s stopping you from getting there?