The Perfect Life

16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” 17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” 18 “Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’” 20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

(Matthew 19: 16 - 22)

The conversation above was one that ensued between Jesus and a rich young man as recorded in Matthew 19. At first, the young man asked Jesus about eternal life and it's requirements, sincerely seeking to know about the mystery of eternal life. Jesus listed out the requirements to those to him. The interesting thing to note though is that he (the young man) was still the one who pointed out that he was still lacking, even after doing all he needed to do to have eternal life - it was NOT Jesus who pointed out that he was lacking. 

Jesus' reply to his 2nd question, "What do I still lack?" was so profound. 

"If you want to be PERFECT, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

‎So, there's a difference between having eternal life i.e salvation and being made perfect. Perfection is attained simply by letting go of our dearest possessions, all we cling to, all that could potentially take the place of Jesus - give it all up and follow Jesus. For the young man, it was material wealth. Maybe that was his only claim to respect as a young man. The older folks had to listen to him and do as he says because he's 'rich'. Maybe he had worked so hard to accumulate that wealth or maybe it was just fear of the unknown (you never can tell when you'll need money), or maybe he was an 'omo baba olowo' - he had been rich all his life and a life of penury wasn't appealing to him. 

So he refused to let go and missed out on perfection. In the same way, God is asking us to let go of what's dearest to us not because we WANT eternal life but because we HAVE eternal life. His desire for us is that we "...Set our eyes on things above and not on things below" so we can follow Jesus. 

What is God asking you to let go of? What's that thing that wont let you follow Jesus totally? Without letting go, there will be no following (of Jesus). And it's the act of following that makes one a Christian. 

God bless you. I know He'll speak to you in ways that I can't. When He does, please listen and do as he says - do all He says -and believe me, from that point on your life will be made perfect. 

Yours in Christ,

Diazno

Eyes on the Road (4) ***THE FINALE***

Hi, glad you're reading this because it's the finale!!!! In my last three posts, we've talked about the need to look forward, avoid distractions and deal with obstacles in out way. All this while still maintaining our focus on the goal which is ahead of us. Just in case you missed those posts, here are the links:

Eyes on the Road (1)

Eyes on the Road (2)

Eyes on the Road (3)

To conclude this series, I'll be sharing an experience I had in my early days as a driver, and the lesson I learned from it (yes, it's a driving story...again). It was just before the LCC Toll Gate on Admiralty Way. I had planned to go on the e-tag lane but somehow found myself driving in the far left lane which happens to be the 'wrongest' lane to be in. I urgently needed to make my way from there to the extreme right. I indicated with my trafficator that I'd like to switch lanes (as I was taught in driving school) but neglected to check behind and around me to see what was happening there (as I was also taught in driving school). To cut the long story short, I almost caused a multiple crash, and once again, felt very stupid. In my defense, it was in my early days as a driver, so please don't judge me. I'm sure it won't happen again.

As I continued my journey, I thought about the incident, trying to figure out what I did wrong. I kept my eyes on the goal (the e-tag lane at the toll gate), I avoided distractions and there were no obstacles in my way. So what went wrong?! After a bit of thinking, I gained some understanding as to why I nearly crashed and subsequently came up with a theory which I'm going to call "Diazno's Theory of Drastic Changes". It reads:

"If you're gonna make a major change, don't be rash. Slow down - stop if necessary - look back, look sideways and be sure you're not going to crash or cause someone else to".

I remind myself of this as much as possible so I don't completely forget. Making changes, drastic ones especially, is a major part of moving forward but these changes must be carefully and purposefully effected with a clear picture of what's behind. Once you make that switch, it may be very difficult and sometimes impossible to reverse it or it's effects on those around you.

Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher once said,

"Study the past if you would define the future". 

A wise saying from a wise man. If you're in a transition phase, it would be really wise of you to pause and take a very good look at what's behind because once you make that switch you'll need to follow through with a great deal of focus.

Toward a better humanity.

Yours sincerely,
Diazno