Artwork by Daniel Venturo
Life gets complicated. Life gets confusing. Hopes, dreams, disappointments, failures, quarrels—all these tangle so easily into a muddled web of uncertainty. Life can quickly spiral into turmoil. When this happens, what do you do? You look to what matters. I am not saying that your hopes, dreams, disappointments, failures, and quarrels do not matter. But when compared with what is most important, they become only minor concerns. That is because what matters is so much bigger and more lasting. Our lives will end and with them all their complications. But there is one thing that matters most, and it will continue forever. So this is what you must look to. When things are muddled, you must look to what is clear. When the future is fuzzy, you must see what is certain. So what is this thing? This thing that is clear, certain, and enduring—all that matters? It is quite simple, really. It can be summed up in two words, The Gospel, and can be explained in a few short sentences. Here it is:
Jesus, God in the flesh, died in the place of guilty sinners. He was buried but rose again. Turn from your sin and trust Jesus alone for the gift of eternal life.
There you are. At first glance, it may seem so simple, even insignificant. You may have heard it a hundred times and now it seems so basic, so trivial compared with all of life’s complications and concerns. And it is simple. So wonderfully, unbelievably simple that even a child’s mind can understand it, and yet so deeply profound that the wisest intellectual can hardly grasp it. Have you ever stopped and thought deeply about this message? If not, please take a moment. Whoever you are, wherever you are at in life, stop. Lay aside your worries, your hopes, dreams, disappointments, failures, and quarrels, and look back to the cross—the only thing that matters. Word for word, soak in its tremendous truth. And when it has overwhelmed you and you really begin to appreciate it, see how it changes your outlook on life . . .
In my next couple of posts, I will be going through this incredible message phrase by phrase. Please take some time to really ponder throughout the day the significance of each bite of truth as you read it.
Read the entire series here.
