On September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks killed 3,000 and the nation mourned. Prayers reverberated through the homes, offices and streets of America. Church pews were filled, and people recommitted their lives to the Lord.
Days passed, life assumed its routine and the religious fervor was replaced with, “What was I thinking?”
Every day in America, variations of this story happen with much the same results. A beloved Christian will die and their loved ones will examine their lives, realizing they are on the wrong path.
Suddenly, the most important thing in their world is to spend eternity with their loved one in heaven. They attend worship in tears and promise to live for God.
Time passes and routine pulls them back into their normal lives, and God is soon forgotten. Satan returns to his throne, and they wonder at their temporary insanity.
Sadly, what they have mistaken for insanity is actually sanity. They flirted with, truth and found it wanting.
Their all-consuming need to see their loved one has been replaced with selfishness.
God will never truly be real when wrapped in emotion.
We will see a false construct but not the Savior’s eyes.
“When He had called the people to Himself,
with His disciples also, He said to them,
‘Whoever desires to come after Me, let him
deny himself, and take up his cross, and
follow Me'” (Mark 8:34, NKJV).
It’s an emotional time when we realize we are a sinner and that we cannot live without the Lord (Acts 8:36).
However, that emotion is grounded in something.
However, raw emotion expressed in a fad or a moment will not bear fruit (Matthew 13:3-9).
If our loved one has lived an exemplary life, showing Christ to us, we can ignore their example, grasp it vicariously or we can investigate the validity of their claims. We must make Christ real in our own hearts or it will never mean anything (Matthew 13:20- 21).
Jesus is not a moment, he is a life. We all need to realize that Christ can be found in a time of loss.
However, he must sink in to truly change our lives, transforming us from lost to saved (Romans 12:1-2; Acts 22:16).