“When a person has found something which he prefers to life itself, he for the first time has begun to live,” wrote G.K. Chesterton. Jesus in his proclamation of the kingdom told us what we could prefer to life itself—and it would work! The Bible ends by telling us we are called to be a people who could say, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20), who could welcome something more than business as usual and live in God’s Big Picture. We all have to ask for the grace to prefer something to our small life itself because we have been offered the shared Life, the One Life, the Eternal Life, God’s Life that became visible in this world in Jesus. We do not get there by being correct. We get there by allowing the connection. It is like a free wireless connection! The kingdom is finally to be identified as the Lord Jesus himself. When we say “Come, Lord Jesus” we are preferring his Lordship to any other loyalty system or any other final frame of reference. If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not! If Jesus is Lord, then the economy and stock market are not! If Jesus is Lord, then my house and possessions, family and job are not! If Jesus is Lord, then I am not! That multileveled implication was obvious to first-century members of the Roman Empire because the phrase “Caesar is Lord” was the empire’s loyalty test and political bumper sticker. They, and others, knew they had changed “parties” when they welcomed Jesus as Lord instead of the Roman emperor as their savior.
—from the book Preparing for Christmas: Daily Meditations for Advent
by Richard Rohr
1 thought on “Better than Life Itself”
The Bible says all the foundations of the earth are out of course, (PS 94). If you try to straighten only one foundation you make the others worse. The Bible says the earth O Lord is full of thy mercy. So that is your choice. Frustration or mercy.