People who have seen me at camps have heard me mention it. Folks who have followed this blog have read the occasional posting about it. And thanks to the Apostle John, I am thinking about it again this week…
What, you may ask? The answer to that is the ‘old man’ character of fantasy novels. Let me quote myself from an earlier blog posting, “Think about it, you have Gandalf, Merlin, Zeddicus, Obi Wan, the Old Professor, and Dumbledore just to name a few. What is it about the ‘old man’ character that provides a prominent place in so many books? They seem to exist to provide stability and direction in many stories; they often are the paragon of whatever virtue is being espoused in the plot line; they are trustworthy and even though they are not always understandable, they come through in the end. They aren’t necessarily the flashiest or the strongest, but they are comfortingly consistent. I think that this character is often times my favorite.”
I have, for the last several weeks, been reading the writings of John in the New Testament. He stands apart from the other Apostles as having been the only one not to die a violent death; in other words, to grow to a ripe old age, to become one of the ‘old men’ characters of our faith. And because of that, I feel drawn to him and his example, and I am struck by words from his First Letter, “This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” (1 John 2: 5b,6)
It seems like the modern world has placed the emphasis on producing, on getting, on moving up. Even in the church we often talk about numbers and accomplishments and programs. And while there is nothing inherently wrong with any of that, there is a subtle danger as if the proof of our faith depended on the outward trappings. John states simply that the proof is our lives themselves, lived after the fashion of Christ. Regardless of prosperity, regardless of who is in the White House, regardless of health, regardless of good times or bad… we are to live like Jesus. Knowing that our lives are to model He who is unchanging, should give us comfort in an ever changing world.
