What will I choose to live my life for?

A few days ago I was sitting at a red light, while I was waiting for the light to change, I began to read the bumper stickers on the cars around me. The car directly in front of me had a Twilight movie bumper sticker on the rear windshield which said,

"When you can live forever, what will you live for?"

That question is one of those fun, conversation starting questions that people ask as a great ice breaker for large groups. If you asked that question to 10 different people, you would probably get 10 different answers:

Love, relationships, marriage, family, physical pleasure, success, prestige, respect, money, career, adventure, service, others, God, and the list goes on and on.

However, this question is not just a surface, "get-to-know-you" question, it makes a very profound statement directed right at the heart of each and every person:

What will you live for?

That got me thinking, what will I live for...what will you live for? Our very lives are defined by this simple yet powerful question. Religious or secular, no one can escape this one question if they desire to find meaning and purpose in their life.

In one sense, we don't live forever. We are born, we grow old, and we die. On the other hand, God through the Bible tells us that we will live forever. We will all most certainly die a physical death, but that death is not the end but the beginning. Death ushers the Christian into heaven where we will see, experience, and worship God for all eternity; while death ushers the non-Christian into an infinite separation from God. This is an in-escapable truth.

In light of eternity and an eternal God, what will you and I choose to live our lives for?

What we will live for is centered upon what we value most; what we value most is what we will desire most; what we desire most is what we pursue hardest; and all of these things combine to define what our purpose in life will be.

Will we choose to focus on that which is eternal or on that which will perish and end someday?

What will matter beyond this life? Not success, prestige, wealth, respect, careers, physical pleasures, adventures, no not even family or friends. There are so many amazing, wonderful things this life has to offer and many bad as well, but do we realize that they all, no matter how good or meaningful, will come crumbling down at the end? When we get to the end of our lives there is going to be one thing, and one thing alone that matters and that is God and our relationship with him. This is why Jesus says in Luke 14:26-27, 33:

If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple...So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

What Jesus is not saying is, "Hate everyone you ever knew including yourself, leave everything, and carry your cross or else you cannot be my disciple." What he is saying is, "Do you love me enough that you are willing to abandon everything for my sake; do you love me so much that it makes your love for your family appear to be hatred; and do you love me enough to suffer as I have suffered and even die for my sake?" He is in reality asking the very same question we have been asking above,

Are you willing to give up everything and everyone for my sake because in the context of eternity nothing else really matters?

Jesus is asking, Am I worth it to you? Is he? Is he worth more than all your dreams, desires, goals, pursuits, and possessions? When we ponder our lives what will we choose to value most?

When we gaze at the cost of discipleship that Jesus demands, it is very easy to say, "That is a lot to ask, Jesus!" or "It seems like I'm giving more than I'm receiving." or "This is an unreasonable cost, that it doesn't appear to be worth it." Haven't we all said or thought something along those lines? The amazing truth is that Jesus is absolutely worth it; and when we see him for who he really is we will be gripped with the absurdity of our previous questions and doubts, and be consumed with his magnificent worth and beauty! Jesus reveals this truth in a simple parable,

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44)

Don't miss the amazing truth in this verse, the man finds something that is of great value and so he goes and sells all he has in order to buy the field that the treasure is hidden in. Imagine the ridicule that he would have received from his friends and family, because from the outside it appears absurd to sell everything you have to buy one field. It is the exact opposite of what any Wall Street stock trader would advise. They would say never put all of your eggs in one basket, but that is exactly what the man does. Why does the man do this? Because he alone understands that the treasure in the field is worth more than all of his possessions combined. Therefore he is no longer a fool, but the smartest man in the world. He has seen the treasure and knows that he gives up essentially nothing in order to gain everything. The cost of discipleship is nothing compared with the gain we have in Christ.

We do live in the context of eternity whether we like it or not, so what will you and I choose to live for? What will we value most, desire greatest, and pursue hardest? Will we continue to live for things that perish or will we grasp on to the one thing that matters beyond this life, God? We have such a warped sense of worth, in view of eternity, we so often choose to settle for things that are momentary and finite. Jesus has placed himself opposite all of the momentary things this world has to offer and said,

Am I worth more to you?

Am I worth giving up virtually nothing, your life, in order that you may gain absolutely everything, Jesus Christ?