“It is by
your holding fast to the word of life that I can boast on the day of Christ
that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.”
~Philippians 2:16 (NRSV)
There is a beauty in life that can
be seen most days; any day, really. Even in decrying suffering aspects of life
we can never quite get our heads around how strangely wonderful life actually
is. This is perhaps what we get, from an imminent-death context, looking back.
The innate human urge is to get
the most from life.
The Agency To Life
As we boil things down to the
basics, we cannot deny an ancient truth. The agency to life is the Word of
God—Paul’s “word of life”—in the manner of living that bequeaths us restoration for the
day.
At the scantest sign of an
approaching hopelessness, a mirage of things vacuously interminable, where life
ceases to make sense, plunging the eyes into God’s Word is the agency divesting
mind, heart and soul into the presence of the spiritual universe beyond time.
From the ancients we draw breath beyond oxygen.
As well for maintenance, reading
our Bibles provides so much impetus for daily insight and learning; it is the
agency to life.
How might we otherwise shine like
stars in the world? We need bearing. We need to sit on a compass of guidance to
find where we are and know where we need to get to. We need the fuel of hope,
even as we feel strong, to compel us through our day.
Practical Nuances Of The
Biblically-Centred Life
Having done our early work, either
late at night or in the dawn, having become reminded of our place in the world
and of our need for fresh spiritual fuelling, we go out into our worlds.
This is where real prayer must
commence: in the going out, staying out and engaging the world, and in coming
home. Our behavioural operations are the keys to life. Our performance runs
quickly back to our earlier spiritual fuelling. We are revealed as having
fuelled well enough or not well enough.
Our key performance test is: have
we shone like stars in the world?
Has God’s Word inspired us, whether
by strength of hope or soundness of confidence, to take our prospects and our
realities into the good results of God’s potential for us?
And whatever is our answer is only
the point to this realisation: how might we try in living for God, tomorrow?
***
Shining like stars in the world is
a Christian imperative and privilege. Our agency is holding fast to the Word of
Life. By this we do not run in vain.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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