From the Vicar, February
Check out this true story from the rather macabre web site called the Darwin Awards. “(16 July 2008, Italy) Gerhard, 68, was queued at a traffic light in his Porsche Cayenne SUV. Before one reaches the light, there is a railroad crossing, and Gerhard had not let the queue progress forward far enough before he drove onto the tracks. As you might imagine, given Murphy’s Law, a train was coming. The safety bars came down, leaving the Porsche trapped on the rails. According to witnesses, it took the driver awhile to realize he was stuck. Finally he jumped from the car and started to run–straight toward the oncoming train, waving his arms in an attempt to save his expensive SUV! The attempt was partly successful. The car received less damage than its owner, who landed 30 meters away. Attempts to revive him were unsuccessful. The moral of the story? Momentum always wins.”
I must confess, “momentum always wins” was not the moral that came to my mind in reading this story. The basic physics behind this story would be obvious to anyone with any sense whatsoever. There is no ‘moral’ in such basic physics. The actual moral lies in the rather messed up priorities that ultimately got Gerhard killed.
It fitting to think about priorities at the beginning of the year and at the start of lent. Some of us, I am sure, are on a track running headlong towards destruction in some vain attempt to preserve things that do not ultimately matter. The things we obsess a lot about, our possessions and careers and so on, are not things that will, in the end, define who we are.
Brian Dyson, CEO of Coca Cola Enterprises, made the now famous statement. “Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – work, family, health, friends and spirit and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.”
Whereas Dyson’s observation is correct when it comes to setting priorities, I don’t entirely agree with him. I believe it is possible to be not only repaired, but made stronger through learning from our mistakes. But we cannot accomplish this by mere exertion of our wills. It requires an act of grace, and we must ultimately forfeit our lives in order to realize it.
Luke 9.23-25, “And [Jesus] said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” This is a rhetorical question, of course. There is no profit because our soul, our own self, is the most important thing.
Christ made the bold claim that if one gives up all cares and concerns of our lives, and our own selves, on the altar of surrender, far from loosing everything, in Christ, it will all be given back. The ancients spoke of Christ as being “the fulfilment of all desire”. As we enter into Lent we will see how much Christ gave in order to accomplish for us such redemption and healing. During Easter we will see that Christ can come through on his promise because he was victorious over death. The question for us is, what do we ultimately value, and what are we willing to give in order to secure that most valuable thing. If we value our own selves, the only way to truly save ourselves is to surrender them to Christ, our Maker, in order for them to be healed and given eternal life.
