Recently, my wife and I returned home from a couple days with friends doing ministry, and I found something wrapped in butcher’s paper in the refrigerator. At first, I couldn’t tell what it was. Then, my wife unwrapped it, and a cold realization came over me because it was two of the juiciest, thickest, finely-cut steaks money could buy. My friend on the trip had purchased them for us to grill out when we returned. The problem was, we didn’t return because we got snowed in for almost two weeks.
So, I quickly rushed the precious tenderloins onto the operating table in the kitchen—known as the kitchen counter—and I contacted the doctor—otherwise known as Google—to see what could be done for the patients. Here’s what I read from Google: Fresh steaks can remain safe for up to three days in the refrigerator and up to a year or even longer in the freezer. Ours had been in the refrigerator for something like 20 days. In other words, I’d run out of time, so I had to bury the little suckers or throw them into the trash, whichever you want to call it. It felt like a burial to me. I even said a few words over them, something along the lines of “How I could have forgotten you?” What’s the worst thing that would have happened if I still ate them? Alas, after going through all the stages of grief over the next minute or so, I accepted the fact that I simply mismanaged the clock. That’s what happened. Time ran out on me. And so, the steaks were gone…forever.
Our Expiration Date
In this life here on earth, it’s a little bit like that. How many things do we take for granted? But much of life, including life itself, has an expiration day, and we have to think about it. Jesus said in John 9:4-5, “We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned to us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work. But while I am here in the world, I’m the light of the world.” Apparently, the very purposes that we were made for the tasks, you know, reaching those far from God, raising them up in Christ, and releasing them for ministry—all that has a sense of urgency attached to it or should. But nobody wants to talk about it.
Blaise Pascal (a French philosopher from the 1600s) had a great analogy for this—and if this doesn’t convict you, I’m not sure you can be convicted. It describes our lives like a giant party full of happy people, loud music, and dancing, during which a monster unexpectedly burst through the doors, grabs a random partygoer, mauls them in front of everybody, and drags their bloody corpse out of the room. (Are we having fun yet?) Everybody watches in horror. And after it’s over, they stare at each other in stunned silence for a few moments. But—check this out—then the band kicks back up. Everybody returns to their frivolity, putting the horrendous display they just saw out of their minds (or at least tries to). This horror is repeated every few moments until it becomes apparent that that monster is eventually coming for everyone in the room. Yet still, the party goes on.
That monster, Pascal said, is our impending death. I call it our expiration day. And our preferred way of dealing with it is just to stay distracted—you know, turn up the music at the party, increase the dancing, focus on people…anything but the monster coming into the room.
Our society, of course, is now elevated the art of distraction to epic levels. TVs are everywhere. Autoplay on Netflix tries to get me to watch one episode of the Office after another after another until I’ve burned through nine seasons. Your phone’s probably alerting you to at least 10 things happening right now that need your attention. You could be sitting in church, which is probably where you should be on a Sunday morning, and your phone’s buzzing off the hook. And I’ve seen people get up and pretend like they’re using the restroom. But really, they’re just checking their messages like it can’t possibly wait.
Social media apps, like Instagram and Twitter and TikTok, are literally built on the psychology of addiction. Maybe you didn’t know this, but they’re created to keep you scrolling & swiping, scrolling & swiping. Trevor Haines, writing for Harvard Science in the News, shows how social media app developers make big bucks on our addiction. By using algorithms to leverage our dopamine-driven reward circuitry in our heads, they stack the cards—and our brains—against us.
So, what am I suggesting that we do about it? Well, I’m suggesting we take a timeout, where we come face to face with the facts by realizing there’s an expiration date on the reconciliation offered through Christ’s rescue mission. It won’t always be there. It’s in this life and not in the next. “Behold now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation,” Paul said to the people at the church of Corinth and 2 Corinthians 6:2. He’s saying, I want to remind you of the immediacy, the urgency of receiving what the Lord wants to do for you now, not waiting. Because truly now’s the time for each of us to be saved, but not just born again eternally but to be saved from that which will hold us back presently.
The God of 2nd Chances is Also the God of Time’s Up
In Genesis 6:3, God says, “My spirit will not always strive or wrestle with men.” Therefore, we know He will not pull on the strings of our heart or whisper in the ears of our spirit indefinitely. If you continually say no to God, there will come a point when He’ll let your decision stand and let you have your own life—a decision, by the way, Jesus would later call the blaspheming of the Holy Spirit (the unpardonable sin). In Mark 3:29, Jesus says, “Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” It becomes eternal because their expiration date comes up.
You don’t have to understand everything to believe in something. The Pharisees were trying to figure out God, and, in doing so, they missed God at every turn. So, again, you don’t have to understand everything to believe in something, but you do have to believe in order to understand that you’re being rescued.
Jesus came on a rescue mission. He gave His life on the cross in your place and mine, and you will not fully understand that until you repent of your sins and actually believe. Remember, God’s ways are higher than ours. (Isaiah 55:9). He created us, and He’s infinitely smarter than us. You’re never going to figure Him out, and you’re never going to see His ways because they’re spiritually discerned. You have to know Him first.
For now, know that our loving God—the God of second chances—is also the God of “time’s up.” There is a point where all chances at the rescue mission are cut off. Make sure you’ve made that all-important decision to follow Christ…before your expiration date.
(If you want to make that decision to follow Christ, or if you want to re-dedicate your life to Him, join us at The Summit in-person or online, and tell one of our leaders! They will give you valuable resources and welcome you (welcome you back) into the family of God.)
Until next time…Peace.
~Pastor Rob
Aka, P-Ro