| “My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you.” |
| —Job 42:5 |
Imagine that someone telephones you to report that you have won a cruise to the Mediterranean. The caller tells you that you will soon receive, in the mail, everything you need to know about this cruise.
Waiting and watching, one day you see a large envelope in your mailbox. You grab it with some excitement and anticipate that it contains the expected information. You run quickly inside and open the package only to find that you had actually won a DVD travelogue of exotic exploration. The brochure with the video invites you to put the DVD in your player, sit down in your favorite chair, and be whisked away to such exotic places as Barcelona, Dubrovnik, Naples, Rome, and Venice.
Your puzzlement is soon overcome by disappointment. Your “cruise” is purely imagination. This DVD excursion totally steals your enthusiasm for the prize you had awaited. You had wanted to breathe the salt air, feel the sun on your skin, and poke your toes into those advertised blue waters. Your dream did not include staying put in your living room and watching as someone else experienced the reality while you get to observe their cruise by way of the video.
It seems that some people experience the Christian life in this way. They feel satisfied “visiting” church, or hearing others talk about how Christ has blessed them. They may even consider themselves Christians because they have had enough Christian education to know the basics of the gospel.
Yet, I believe some people who claim to be Christian really only know Jesus second-hand. They do not know Him as a personal Friend, as the Savior from their sin, or as the Bread of Life that they feast on daily. They seem satisfied with a virtual Christian life—a DVD of the experience—and not the real experience itself.
Then, there are some of us who do know Christ, have met Him personally, have let life crowd in, and have forgotten to include Him in every aspect of our lives. We have left any real-life experience with Him. And, in its place, we have satisfied ourselves with a remembrance of a past blessing, or of a time of genuine closeness to Him.
The beginning of a new year makes a perfect time to reverse this trend of substitution. Consider the personal invitation of the God of Creation, through the writer of Hebrews, who says in Hebrews 10:22:
Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith
We should never allow ourselves to be satisfied with a mere second-hand knowledge of a God who is so great and wonderful. Let the prayer of Paul to the Ephesians speak to you of God’s will for you this new year, as found in Ephesians 1:17-19:
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparable great power for us who believe.
Let’s expect a year of the genuinely real experiences of knowing our Lord better. May we never settle for someone else’s story or decide to remain as bystanders in the Christian life.
