0
No Keys in His Pocket
Posted by
Bob Fetherlin
,
15 August 2007
·
935 views
Today my friends David and Margot left Colorado Springs to go to another country as Alliance workers. They went to share Christ, make disciples, nurture churches, and help the team of C&MA workers serving in this nation.
For the last several months, David and Margot have been on a transition journey . . . putting their home on the market, selling two cars, going through everything in their house to decide what to keep / give away / throw away / take with them in their suitcases / sell, getting visas and passports and power of attorney papers in order, etc. It's been a tiring journey leading up to their getting on the plane today. They're just one couple among many Alliance workers who have been through this exhausting transition process in recent months.
David usually has a key ring in his pocket with several keys on it: one for the house, one for the mailbox, two for cars, and some other miscellaneous keys. These keys symbolize his responsibilities, his possessions, his person, in a sense even his earthly significance. But today he had none of these keys in his pocket. They're all gone. David and Margot have left their keys and all they symbolize to go to a place where many least reached peoples are concentrated, where huge odds are stacked against them, the church, and Jesus Christ whom they represent.
Over the coming weeks, David and Margot will accumulate some new keys in their new setting. But the lessons of having no keys in their pocket today will remain clear:
Having lots of keys is not what's really important in life. Knowing and loving Christ, belonging to him, is.
Keys represent life in this temporal world through which we journey. We have only one life to give, and giving it in service to Christ is worth it!
In order to leave one culture and go to another as Christ's representatives, we have to give up our keys. Sacrifice is involved in this process.
When all is said and done, accumulating and holding on to keys is an act in futility.
"Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweights them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen . . . (on all the things related to keys) . . . , but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).
Remember, the keys in your pocket or purse represent a temporary world. They are not your signficance. The world represented by those keys will not last . . . only what's done for Christ will endure!
For the last several months, David and Margot have been on a transition journey . . . putting their home on the market, selling two cars, going through everything in their house to decide what to keep / give away / throw away / take with them in their suitcases / sell, getting visas and passports and power of attorney papers in order, etc. It's been a tiring journey leading up to their getting on the plane today. They're just one couple among many Alliance workers who have been through this exhausting transition process in recent months.
David usually has a key ring in his pocket with several keys on it: one for the house, one for the mailbox, two for cars, and some other miscellaneous keys. These keys symbolize his responsibilities, his possessions, his person, in a sense even his earthly significance. But today he had none of these keys in his pocket. They're all gone. David and Margot have left their keys and all they symbolize to go to a place where many least reached peoples are concentrated, where huge odds are stacked against them, the church, and Jesus Christ whom they represent.
Over the coming weeks, David and Margot will accumulate some new keys in their new setting. But the lessons of having no keys in their pocket today will remain clear:
Having lots of keys is not what's really important in life. Knowing and loving Christ, belonging to him, is.
Keys represent life in this temporal world through which we journey. We have only one life to give, and giving it in service to Christ is worth it!
In order to leave one culture and go to another as Christ's representatives, we have to give up our keys. Sacrifice is involved in this process.
When all is said and done, accumulating and holding on to keys is an act in futility.
"Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweights them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen . . . (on all the things related to keys) . . . , but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).
Remember, the keys in your pocket or purse represent a temporary world. They are not your signficance. The world represented by those keys will not last . . . only what's done for Christ will endure!
