Passing thoughts
Sometimes I find myself thinking it would be easier to be a Christian facing persecution rather than living, as we do, with the silent seduction of our materialistic society. For most of us, life in this world is so comfortable and pleasant – or at least it promises to be – that we can easily forget that “this world in its present form is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7:31). Not to mention the fact that we are passing away ourselves!
Persecution, on the other hand, makes us long for a better world, the world to come. So, how can we live surrounded by such riches, but without living for them? These words of John Calvin will repay reading and re-reading: “All the things which make for the enriching of this present life are sacred gifts of God, but we spoil them by our misuse of them. If we want to know the reason why, it is because we are always entertaining the delusion that we will go on for ever in this world. The result is that the very things which ought to be of assistance to us in our pilgrimage through life, become chains which bind us … For the man who thinks of himself as an alien sojourner in the world, uses the things of the world as if they belonged to someone else; in other words, as things which are lent for the day only. The point is that the mind of a Christian ought not to be filled with thoughts of earthly things, or find satisfaction in them, for we ought to be living as if we might have to leave this world at any moment.”