When I read this meme, helpfully created by an atheist, I started thinking hard about my spiritual path and about what Twain (1835-1910), the great American author/humourist/entrepreneur, had to say.
What “great” things have I given up in this life? Just look at the depiction of Twain in this meme. Can anyone credibly tell me smoking is a great thing?
As for alcohol (see the drink in his hand?), there is nothing in the original source biographies of Jesus of Nazareth (who many people believe is God’s Son) that forbids enjoying the occasional beer or glass of wine.
Casual sex? Um, hasn’t the spread of sexually transmitted diseases taught us this isn’t necessarily the great thing that our culture says it is?
Money? God doesn’t forbid providing a comfortable life for people and their families. What He does frown upon is loving money more than people, more than honesty, more than integrity and more than generosity. In fact, one of Jesus’s earliest followers wrote “Lust for money brings trouble and nothing but trouble”.
Power? There are all kinds of Jesus followers in important positions who are not corrupted by power. Just one example is John Tyson, chairman of the U.S. food giant Tyson Foods. He has served with several significant non-profit organizations, including the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependance.
Now, about the “mediocre things of an imaginary (life)”. Twain believed there is nothing beyond the existence you are I are living now — in other words, when we die, all that we are becomes nothing more than rancid worm food (sorry to be this blunt, but it’s necessary). Give this some serious thought; do you have this hopeless belief?
Consider the brokenness of our world — wars, human trafficking, man-made famines and ethnic cleansing. As far as I’m concerned, all this happens because people have rejected their creator, rejected the idea of a life beyond this one, and therefore believe they should do anything and everything to grab all the power, money and prestige they can.
If you’re willing to contemplate this ugly reality, then you might start to realize there MUST be something better than our 70-plus years on planet Earth.
And if you do that, you might question Twain’s opinion that what comes after this life is “mediocre”.
So how can you get in on the promise of a glorious life to come? It’s simple: God offers you the gift of His Son — His life, sacrificial death (for all the wrong things you’ve done and all the right things you’ve failed to do) and glorious resurrection.
Accept the gift. Commit yourself to learning about Jesus and what it means to love Him and follow Him. When you do that, He’ll come into your life and start to prepare you for eternity by slowly making you the kind of person He knows you can be.
Interested? Yes or now, comment below and let’s have a conversation.
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