FROM REAL TO ZERO
Coca-cola advertisements have gone through phases which could be used to label a person’s spiritual journey. A couple of decades ago, the tag-line was “It’s the real thing.” Recently, they came up with “Coke-light”. Now there is “Coke-zero.”
A person’s spiritual journey can begin with the real thing and end up in a zero. This can happen in two contrasting ways.
The first way is when the “real thing” is a genuine vital relationship with God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Down the road however what was real then becomes Christianity-light. This is when our relationship and faith in the Lord have not gone deeper but rather remains rather superficial. It is like seeds sown on stony ground and among thorns (Mark 4:1-20). It is just a matter of time before our faith ends up with nothing that can stand the test of trials and tribulations that buffet us in our work, finances, and personal relationships. We have reached zero.
The opposite way of reading these slogans to our lives is to see that what we started out with believing to be the “real-thing” is actually nothing more than just tasty stuff without any substance. It is actually zero in terms of spirituality. When one has come to this realisation, then the journey continues with lightening one’s dependence on such superficiality. A gradual process moves one from zero to light and then to the real thing. At this final point, one becomes totally dependent on God alone. This zero in a good sense: one has learned to throw off what was artificially “real” to the point of being totally dependent what is truly the “real thing” – God Himself.
The recent financial crisis may have been a trigger point to move from zero to real. For some the crisis has brought about a realisation that dependence on financial and material successes is actually a zero life. The “real thing” is depending on the God who is love.
What we have in Christ is real. He gives Himself to us, and is present in us with His Holy Spirit. God dwelling in His creature! When we have come to truly apprehend the tremendous implication of this truth, then all other substitutes are just nothing. Because God is eternal, grasping the magnificence of this reality is a never-ending adventure. In discovering the significance of this truth, we can see that we are existing far below our potential. But we find also the pathway to fulfilling it.
Our sojourn on this earth is no longer a dreary slog. It is an opportunity to exercise and experience the fullness of what God is and what He has made us to be. We can in many ways live the life of heaven here on earth. We will have opportunities to test and try out, learn from our failures of what the final reality is like in heaven.
May you have the joy of walking on this road and know the depth of God’s love for you as you do so.
Shalom.
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