Tuesday, May 27, 2014
393 - Defining Moments
Spirituality Column #393
May 27, 2014
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
What’s the defining moment in your life? Do you have one?
I’ve just celebrated my 60th birthday and can remember plenty of big moments, but not an exclusive, explains-it-all “defining” moment.
Life is a series, a mosaic, a dance. It can be organized, artistic, and graceful. It can be chaotic, disjointed, and clumsy. Mine has been a mixture of all that. Choices, ambition, circumstances, challenges, aspirations, disappointments, affections, disdain, talents, labor, triumph and tragedy compose and comprise life’s definable moments. Cramming life’s totality into a single moment, for most of us I suspect, just isn’t possible.
I’m a Christian so, yes, being baptized into Christ at age 47 was a big moment. But it was making the earlier and completely unexpected step of actually going to church – and then sitting in the pew crying – that was a bigger, life-changing moment. Baptism, after that, was a formality.
I’ve been blessed with jobs, love, family, and health, yet on occasion felt cursed by various aspects of those same things. When I was nine years old my family moved from Battle Creek, Mich., to Kokomo, Ind. I cannot imagine my life being anywhere close to the same – not better or worse, just dramatically not the same – had that not happened. The move didn’t define my life, but it sure changed it.
I think of people I’ve encountered, work I’ve done, mistakes I’ve made, sins I’ve committed, and providential protections I’ve been afforded. Occasionally, there has been a good deed. Some moments I’ve defined, and some moments have defined me. Single moments that define an entire life are rare in the human experience.
But pull back to the cosmic long view, and consider the moment in history that defines all history, all life, and all humanity: the Cross of Jesus Christ. Nothing else in the history of the world or in any of our individual lives is as consequential as that.
Yes, one could point out the obvious importance and pre-condition of Creation. Without that we wouldn’t have much to talk about, would we? But Christ is from the beginning (Genesis 1, John 1) and His work on the Cross reaches into all eternity. He is the shepherd of all mankind (John 3:16) who is the light of the glory of God (Revelation 21:23).
There is a timeline diagram I like: an arrow pointing left (history prior to Christ) beside an arrow pointing right (history since Christ), with the Cross in between. Before Christ … with Christ.
Seeking a defining moment anywhere but the Cross is looking for life in all the wrong places.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) cites Bible scholar Dr. George Bebawi – “The Cross didn’t divide God, it divided history.” Now that’s a defining moment.
May 27, 2014
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
Defining Moments
By Bob WaltersWhat’s the defining moment in your life? Do you have one?
I’ve just celebrated my 60th birthday and can remember plenty of big moments, but not an exclusive, explains-it-all “defining” moment.
Life is a series, a mosaic, a dance. It can be organized, artistic, and graceful. It can be chaotic, disjointed, and clumsy. Mine has been a mixture of all that. Choices, ambition, circumstances, challenges, aspirations, disappointments, affections, disdain, talents, labor, triumph and tragedy compose and comprise life’s definable moments. Cramming life’s totality into a single moment, for most of us I suspect, just isn’t possible.
I’m a Christian so, yes, being baptized into Christ at age 47 was a big moment. But it was making the earlier and completely unexpected step of actually going to church – and then sitting in the pew crying – that was a bigger, life-changing moment. Baptism, after that, was a formality.
I’ve been blessed with jobs, love, family, and health, yet on occasion felt cursed by various aspects of those same things. When I was nine years old my family moved from Battle Creek, Mich., to Kokomo, Ind. I cannot imagine my life being anywhere close to the same – not better or worse, just dramatically not the same – had that not happened. The move didn’t define my life, but it sure changed it.
I think of people I’ve encountered, work I’ve done, mistakes I’ve made, sins I’ve committed, and providential protections I’ve been afforded. Occasionally, there has been a good deed. Some moments I’ve defined, and some moments have defined me. Single moments that define an entire life are rare in the human experience.
But pull back to the cosmic long view, and consider the moment in history that defines all history, all life, and all humanity: the Cross of Jesus Christ. Nothing else in the history of the world or in any of our individual lives is as consequential as that.
Yes, one could point out the obvious importance and pre-condition of Creation. Without that we wouldn’t have much to talk about, would we? But Christ is from the beginning (Genesis 1, John 1) and His work on the Cross reaches into all eternity. He is the shepherd of all mankind (John 3:16) who is the light of the glory of God (Revelation 21:23).
There is a timeline diagram I like: an arrow pointing left (history prior to Christ) beside an arrow pointing right (history since Christ), with the Cross in between. Before Christ … with Christ.
Seeking a defining moment anywhere but the Cross is looking for life in all the wrong places.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) cites Bible scholar Dr. George Bebawi – “The Cross didn’t divide God, it divided history.” Now that’s a defining moment.
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