The Campfire
What story do you want to tell at the fire when you remember this life from eternity?
On the morning of September 8th, I had a stroke.
A slice of my brain got caught behind a blood clot in the M2 artery, and died.
It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced.
It was the greatest wake-up call I have ever had.
The morning of the stroke, I went to my desk to do the work of the day, and I started to write messages… except I couldn’t.
What came out was more like '“mxl p thy’ybedeas.”
It was a problem.
It was a problem I didn’t want to look at, hoping, against all reason, that it would go away.
That was my answer.
Pretend the problem isn’t there.
Super good plan.
I got lucky.
God smiled at me.
He did something, He spoke, I listened, and a couple of hours later, I’m standing at my desk having typed “my mind is not broken and I can write.”
And that’s amazing.
Truly.
I’m grateful.
Except… I see another problem I don’t want to look at. One I think is a lot more important than my stroke.
Before I get to that… can I ask you a question?
If you believed that God was really for you, what would you try to do?
Like, really.
Truly.
What would you do?
If you could not fail?
Is there nothing you would do differently?
I know exactly what I would do.
I just don’t know how.
The problem I see is that eternity is real.
And looking at ‘us,’ generally, this is a huge problem.
Because we do not live this way.
I don’t.
The logic is simple, if inconvenient.
Eternity is either real and is a space that you and I will inhabit together, or everything we believe is wrong.
Eternity either exists in time as we understand it, and we will share that time together, or everything we think we understand about eternity is wrong.
That tells us some things.
It tells us that this life, now, is just a glimpse that will then be a cherished memory.
This life, now, is our only chance to decide who we are in our own imperfection before perfection is given to us as grace, then.
This life, now, is our only chance to confront evil, to risk on the gospel, and declare who we are before God resolves history then.
This life, now, is our only chance to stand.
So…
Who do you want to be?
What do you want to remember in eternity?
What are you scared of?
…for myself?
I’m scared I will never try.
I think in eternity there will be a campfire.
We will sit together, and we will tell stories.
We will prize the stories we fear living today - of dreams exceeding reach, of faith in painful adversity, of total failure, and of utter willingness.
We will tell these stories in a perfect place where risk is not possible.
We will tell these stories in the revealed kingdom where faith is unneeded.
We’re going to sit there, inside of the perfect safety that we are promised, and we are going to look back on now with intense respect for the people who live, now, as if they actually think this is all true.
So here’s my radical idea that a million and one people have had before…
Let’s do it.
Let’s be those people.
Together. And then, one day, we can sit together at that campfire, and we can talk about when we were young, and the world was broken, and we lived inside of the glory of the promise of the Son.
Let’s risk, faith, and dream beyond reasonable ambition.
Let’s plant churches, try things, and serve people in the love of God every way we can.
Let’s be a part of and partner with people who want to try things.
Let’s cry loud and mean it, “God send me! Use me!”
Tell the Lord. Tell your friends. Tell everyone. See who it is that wants to do the work of diving in with us… and then let’s get to work.
Let’s take risks while we still can.
Let’s have faith when it matters.
Now.
Mark 9:24
…“I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
All scripture referenced is NLT unless otherwise noted. I prefer NLT for postural discussion as it is both reasonably rigorous while retaining a conversational tone.
For study I strongly encourage the use of original language tools, multiple translations, and rigorous critical thought.
Please remember that when you read the Bible in English you are always reading someone else’s theological interpretation of the text.
So hard to put into action, yet we are called to live by faith. It is as hard as really believing we can get our feet on the water and not sink. The good thing is even if we don’t stay on it, we can keep trying, if only to stay atop for an instant before we go down again.
The owner of a business I managed would often tell me to "pull back the lens" when I would fret over the short term implications of a matter. I've read this is also called "cathedral thinking" or "amir fati" (loving one's fate).
Your exploration of eternity with the temporal in view is a brilliant exercise that causes me to consider the potentially powerful possibilities of the present.