“Eternal life with God should be the singular aim of our lives.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – February 29, 2024
And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. Mark 9:43-45, ESV
When I was maybe 8 or 9 years old, I gouged my leg on a piece of metal while sitting on a swivel chair in a restaurant. Though it was a relatively minor injury, it left a significant scar on my leg that I carry with me to this day. Of course, over the next few decades I picked up many additional wounds and scars that mark the passing of time and the frailty of our human bodies, yet I will always remember that first “major” injury and the way it marked me for the rest of my life. In some small way, a portion of my childhood innocence was lost in that moment as I was introduced to the reality of our mortality.
Though we all know it in the core of our beings, we live in a world that spends billions of dollars every year trying to convince us to deny the fact that our bodies are fickle and frail things, easily maimed and aging at an exponential rate. In spite of this truth, the messages continue to crash over us, like wave after wave. A cream for this. A scrub for that. A new diet. A new workout routine. Find the perfect combination, and you’ll finally have the body and health you’ve always dreamt of!
With kindness and compassion upon his lips, today our Lord Jesus speaks afresh a timeless word to our weary and exhausted souls: there’s something far worse than an imperfect body! In fact, bodily perfection and perpetual youth is one of the most ancient and enduring lies that have ever been told. In every age there is a strong temptation to invest in the temporal as though it’s eternal. After all, it’s what we can touch and see, so why not give it our full attention?
The greatest investment of time and energy that you and I can make is in that which will endure for eternity. And in dramatic and attention-grabbing fashion, our Lord Jesus makes this abundantly clear! Life eternal – abiding communion with the triune God – should be the singular aim of our lives, and if this means our bodies are maimed and lame from the lifelong pursuit of holiness, then let us wear these scars, not as a sign of shame or disgrace, but a badge of honor and offering that we pour out at the feet of our Lord.
Prayer
Father, free us from the empty pursuit of vanity and self-love, instead setting our hearts on high where true joy is to be found. Amen.
Application
Consider ways that your own bodily care and self-preservation have possibly distracted you from the joy and hope of eternal life with God.
Related Reading
Matthew 5:48; Hebrews 12:14; 1 Peter 1:15-16
Worship Resource
Reawaken Hymns: Take My Life and Let It Be
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