Encouraging - Safely Home

Recently, I’ve tried to vary my reading more. As such, some of the books, I’ve been reading are less “quotable” for my weekly blog, but nevertheless all of which have been very good. A few weeks ago, I finished a fiction book by Randy Alcorn, Safely Home. Even though in high school I loved my first introduction to Christian fiction, This Present Darkness – Frank Peretti; since then, I’ve only read a few books in this genre. I bought Safely Home four months ago. I had never heard of it, but saw that it was a gold medallion winner and I knew Alcorn was biblically sound. When I ran out of books to read I picked it up; two days later I finished it. As Dr. Tim Lahaye offers on the back of the book “This brilliant story mixes the warmth of a good novel with the harsh reality of the persecuted church.” The story centers around two former Harvard roommates, Ben Fielding and Li Quan. Decades have past since they last saw each other. Quan was always the brilliant one destined for greatness and Fielding had the personality. Fielding entered the business world while Quan chose to return to China as a professor. As one might expect both men’s lives did not turn out as they had initially planned. Through a series of event s the two reunite in China. Both are shocked by what they learn about each other and both face a series of life altering tough choices. This book is extremely compelling and convicting. I highly recommend this book.

Let me leave you with a final thought. With the recent passing of my grandfather, I continue to reflect on what sort of legacy do I want to leave my children and my grandchildren. This quote from Li Quan was compelling “In China we have different words for inheritance and heritage. Even a bad father can leave an in heritance. Only a good father can leave a heritage” (192 - Safely Home).

Encouraging - Temporary vs. Eternal

Wise people build their lives around what is eternal and squeeze in what is temporary. Not the other way around. So let’s try an exercise in understanding what is at stake. Think for a few moments about two categories: “forever” and “temporary.” What in your life is going to last forever, and what is going back in the box?

Now take it a step further. In your imagination (or it might be helpful for you to do this in real life), take a pad of self-adhesive notes and write “TEMPORARY” on each one. Walk around and distribute them everywhere you need to be reminded. Put one on your car. Put one on the front door of your house. Put TEMPORARY stickers on each piece of furniture. Put one on the front of your checkbook. Stick them on all the clothes in your closet. Put them on your iPod and on the TV and the treadmill and the barbeque.

Then take another set of self-adhesive notes and write “ETERNAL.” Put them on your family. Put them on your friends. Put one on your boss. Put one on the stranger behind the counter. Put one on the person you most dislike in the world. Don’t forget to put one on your forehead as well.

For the stuff in our lives is only temporary. The day is coming when all our 401 (k)s and our bank statements will be irrelevant. The titles on our resumes will no longer impress anyone. GPAs and SAT scores and college acceptance letters will be long-forgotten. No one will know what clothes hung in our closets or what cars sat in our garages.

All that will be left is love. That which was done out of love for God will last. Every human being you see is a cleverly disguised receptacle of eternity. You can take the love with you. The object of life is to be rich toward God.

John Ortberg, When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI: 2007), 31-32.

Encouraging - Eternity

Only two things on earth will go into eternity - God's Word and people. God has placed us here to grow in Christ and to reproduce the life of Christ in others. Each of us has specific opportunities to do this in our own spheres of influence, and as we abide in Christ and let his words abide in us, we will bear lasting fruit (John 15:7-8), and the living God will confirm the work of our hands.

Ken Boa, Conformed to His Image (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI: 2001), 210.