Don't put off the Big Stuff

I want to tell you about my best friend Rob. As best friends go he was at the top of the tree. We first met when we were about 12. We went to the local church youth group together and hit it off straight away. One of the most noticeable things about our friendship was that we had nothing in common. On the surface at least. We would go for months and months and see each other each day, we talked for hours, but I’m not sure what about. We never had an argument. We both went to church though I’m not too sure what our faith was like back then. In our late teens Rob started to drift away from church. We didn’t have too many deep conversations back than but I remember clearly one we had. It was a Sunday night as Rob collected me after church to go out for the evening. He said that church didn’t fit well into his lifestyle at the moment. When he wanted to be out drinking, sleeping with his girlfriend and so on the church was saying he was wrong. He went on to say that when he was in his mid thirties, settled down with a wife and a few kids he would come back to church. Then it would fit in with his lifestyle and things would be great.

I can see him saying it now, “when I’m in my mid thirties I will come back to church“. Rob died at the age of 34. He never came back to church, though who knows if he came back to God. Rob contracted MS and in what seemed like the blink of an eye he was gone.

There are decisions in life that need to be made. Yet we put them off and muddle through. If we got a letter from government to say we were owed £1millon in back taxes and other repayments we might find it difficult to believe. We might dream and convince ourselves that it’s true and think of all the things we’d spend the money on. We might put on our rational hat and say that it can’t possibly be true as we’ve never paid £100k in taxes let alone a £million. However until you pick up the phone and ask them you’ll never know for sure. Wouldn’t you want to do everything you could to see if it were true?

The Bible claims some incredible things. In the two thousand years since they were written none of it’s claims have been disproved. Doesn’t that say quite a lot? People try to discredit the Bible for they know if they can’t the claims of the Bible mean that they would seriously have to change their life. Man would no longer be the greatest force in the universe and perhaps we’d have to be a little less self orientated. If the Bible were no more than a self-help guide on how to live our lives it would still be a brilliant book. Surely most of us would agree that it is better to love than to hate, to give rather than receive, live in peace rather than go to war, to tell the truth rather than to lie, to forgive rather than harbour grudges, to put people first rather than be selfish, to be faithful rather than be faithless, to honour people rather than be disrespectful. These are great ideals by which to live your life and if more of us did the world would certainly be a better place. But what if there was more to the Bible than just a life instruction manual. What if what it claims actually was true? Don’t you think it might be worth checking out? What if the world was created, if we do need forgiveness, if Jesus has paid the price for us? What if there really is a heaven and hell, a right way to live and a wrong way? Don’t you think it might be worth looking into, asking friends who do believe to explain what they believe and why? Ask questions by commenting here or join an ALPHA group.

We could put all these questions off until tomorrow. But what if, like Rob, we never have the chance to come back and check it out? Don’t put off until tomorrow what you could start today.