What is your Life Story?
We are again at the threshold of
another new year! Such a season is good for making a new set of resolutions.
Perhaps our resolutions would be more meaningful and enduring if we start by
considering why we exist and what is the sole purpose of our life on this earth.
Such questions find echoes in Moses’ contemplation of the brevity of our human
life before God. In Psalm 90, he provided us with a Godly example of the
longing for Gladness (v14) while seeking God’s Glory and beauty on the work of
their hands (v17). Do you have such a longing? Is your life story to date consumed
with such a passion for God’s Kingdom and his people?
Litmus Test
Perhaps a litmus test you can
subject yourself to is to examine what kind of Grand Narrative of life you
espouse. For such a Narrative will shape one’s life story. From a tender age of
seven, we were imbued with the Grand Narrative of seeking “happiness and prosperity for our nation”. Perhaps this is one of
the factors for Singapore’s success to date. Such a Grand Narrative of Life
while congruent with a Nation’s aspiration, falls seriously short of providing
direction on the meaning of each individual life or if there is a Creator God.
Of course, outside the church the majority of people are enchanted with the
Grand Narrative of the material world, that the best is here and that we should
eat, drink and be merry, and be our own god, as the transcendental vision of
the world to come is but an illusion, a pie in the sky. Such a material Grand
Narrative is grounded in the idea that “we
are here by accident, a meaningless product of a random process; we can only
invent meaning and purpose in life and do our best to stay alive though there
is no point to!” So, to many young
ones, meaning means the YOLO[1]
life style or striving for financial freedom at 40 so that they can do what
they like, while to the retired or many who have the financial means, meaning
means ticking off a bucket list of places to visit and not to mention a quick
and easy death without Dementia or Parkinson disease. I suspect too that this
is the incognito Grand Narrative of many in our pews, perhaps not by intention
but in their life tenor and outcome. If so, this is tragic, but this need not
be so.
Christian Grand Narrative
What is the Christian Grand
Narrative of the Bible? Perhaps it can be described as follows:
“In Christ, we are children of a loving God; we are destined for Heaven.
In the meantime, we have the privilege to Glorify God by serving him on earth,
by seeking first his Kingdom. Through Serving him by relying on him, we will
find Gladness, Joy and Comfort as well as being prepared for Heaven. Each
succeeding chapter of our life will then be better than the one before. Each of
us needs therefore to find our place in this Grand Narrative and in so doing,
we will also find meaning and significance for our life here on earth while
being shaped for Glory”[2].
By providence, each of us has a
unique story and our unique story needs to be framed by the bigger story of the
Christian Grand Narrative but this would require faith in the Christian Grand
Narrative, in order to enter and experience its truth and beauty. Such a notion
of Christian Grand Narrative can be seen from some key verses:
- Children of a Loving God – “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (Jn 1:12).
- Destined for Heaven – “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (Jn 14:2,3).
- Privilege to Glorify God by Serving him now – “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt 6:33); “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10).
- Gladness, Joy and Comfort as well as being prepared for Heaven – “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (Jn 10:10,11); “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” (1 Cor 4:17,18).
Will Splendor Await You?
We have earlier alluded to the deep
desire of Moses in rejoicing in God while labouring to glorify him in his short
life. In the New Testament, we see another example in the person of the Apostle
Paul. I am referring to his grand statement found in Phil 1:20,21:
- “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:20,21).
To the Apostle Paul, he found Joy
and satisfaction in Christ, whether in life or in death. In life, in his Gospel
work for God’s Kingdom. In death, while losing all things yet gaining Christ! The
Kingdom centric focus of the Apostle Paul is also applicable to each of us,
whether we are a Student or a top notch medical Doctor. Jesus in no uncertain
terms declares that stupendous splendor awaits each of us who is in God’s
Kingdom and who looks for his coming, not just the Apostles, on the other side
of heaven.
- “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt 13:43).
But does your life story to date
resonates with that of Moses and Apostle Paul in essence and motivation? Is
your life story in the right trajectory as framed by the Christian Grand
Narrative? There is really no alternative to the Christian Grand Narrative, as CS
Lewis once put it,
So, let us examine ourselves in the remaining hours of this Lord’s Day and 2017 for this very purpose and determine to shape our life story, by God’s grace, according to the Christian Grand Narrative, for 2018 and beyond in the path of spending and be spent for God’s Kingdom!
- “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.”
So, let us examine ourselves in the remaining hours of this Lord’s Day and 2017 for this very purpose and determine to shape our life story, by God’s grace, according to the Christian Grand Narrative, for 2018 and beyond in the path of spending and be spent for God’s Kingdom!
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