LIVE YOUR LIFE LIKE YOU MEAN IT
Isaac Butterworth
November 14, 2010
2 Peter 1:3-11 (NIV)
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.
10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
When I was a kid, I loved baseball, and I loved to play. But the truth is, I wasn’t very good at it. I was even on a team once. I never made the starting lineup, but my coach was kind enough to let me play at least one inning in every game, usually the ninth. He would send me out to right field, and he probably hoped I wouldn’t get a chance to bat. My batting average was basically zero.
One time, we were playing a team whose pitcher was nothing less than imposing. He was a big kid, and he could throw hard and fast. He had super control, and he mostly threw strikes. You could be sure that the ball would come right over the middle of the plate every time. In more advanced baseball, that would be every hitter’s dream, but we weren’t all that advanced. And when he hurled the ball, he did it with such speed that no one could get the bat around on him.
Come the ninth inning, we were down by a run. And I know it pained the coach to put me in, but he was a good guy and he did it anyway. And -- wouldn’t you know -- the way things turned out, I would get to make a trip to the plate in the bottom of the inning. The first two batters struck out. The kid before me walked, so our tying run was on base with two outs. And it was my turn to face this dominating pitcher. I was sure I would strike out, and we would lose the game. And it would be my fault. Nevertheless, I stepped into the batter’s box, determined to meet my fate with whatever courage I could muster. I felt like I was being thrown to the lions.
The pitcher looked at me and, no doubt, sized me up as his last victim. Three quick pitches, and he would put me away. He went into his stretch and reared back and threw one of his searing fast balls. I stood there like a statue, not moving, except maybe to flinch a little at the thought of getting hit by one of his pitches. ‘Smack!’ The ball sailed into the catcher’s mitt. Strike one! Same thing on the next pitch. I never even saw the ball. ‘Whoosh!’ ‘Smack!’ Strike two.
Then, here it came: the third pitch, delivered just as fast and just as hard and just as straight down the middle as the other two. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t just stand there and let the ball whiz by me. So, I closed my eyes and, against all hope, I swung. I swung as hard as I could, and, suddenly, I felt the impact of the ball on the thick part of my bat. ‘Crack!’ For a baseball lover, its the sweetest sound in the world. I opened my eyes, and I couldn’t believe what I saw. The ball was soaring up and over the center fielder’s head. Its trajectory indicated a long ball and extra bases.
I was paralyzed for a moment, but just for a moment. I had never connected with a ball like that before. Half-stunned, I began to run. I tagged first base and rounded second and ducked my head and ran toward third. By this time, the center fielder had recovered the ball and was throwing it, and here it came, zinging toward the third baseman’s open glove. I literally threw myself at the bag, sliding into the base on my belly. I beat the tag by a mere fraction of a second. But I made it. I was safe. My teammate scored, our supporters cheered, and I stood up. I could barely believe it. I had hit a triple. It was the only hit I got that season. And, to be honest, it was an accident. I just closed my eyes and swung the bat.
Anybody who knows anything about baseball will tell you that I was lucky. No batting coach would ever instruct a player to do what I did. Chances are, 999 times out of thousand, if you close your eyes, you won’t hit the ball. And those odds may be too generous.
I remember telling my own kids, when we would play sandlot ball -- I remember saying, ‘Keep your eye on the ball.’ That’s the main thing, whether you’re hitting or fielding. Keep your eye on the ball. That’s the only way to make it in baseball, and that’s the only way to succeed in life. You can’t shut your eyes to reality.
You’ve got to watch what you’re doing. You’ve got to look where you’re going. I didn’t mean to hit the ball that day; in fact, I didn’t think I would. It just sort of happened. And everybody knew it. But we can’t afford to do that in real life. We’ve got to live life like we mean it.
In the little book of 2 Peter, tucked away near the back of the New Testament, the Apostle talks about the kind of life that makes a difference. It takes intention, he says. You’ve got to live your life like you mean it. Otherwise, as he puts it in verse 8, you’ll be ‘ineffective and unproductive.’ What he means by that is, there will be effort but no return. You won’t have anything to show for what you’ve done. You will have marked time, but you won’t have accomplished anything -- at least, anything of lasting value.
You’ve got to watch what your doing. You’ve got to look where you’re going. Not only on the field of play but in the game of life. You’ve got to live your life like you mean it. You’ve got to know what you’re aiming for.
And the way to do this, Peter says, is to ‘make every effort to confirm’ God’s claim on your life. When he says, ‘make every effort,’ he is saying, ‘Be diligent. Don’t let the grass grow under your feet. Live your life like you mean it.’
You’re a person of faith, but faith won’t stand alone, not for long. You’ve been entrusted with faith, but now -- to use a word from the old Puritans -- you’ve got to improve it. Add to it the virtues that are listed here in 2 Peter: good character, spiritual understanding, discipline, enduring patience, sincere devotion, warmth toward others, and generous, self-giving love.
If you’re not watching what you’re doing in each of these areas, if you’re not looking where you’re going, Peter says, you’re ‘nearsighted and blind.’ Really, what he says in the original language is, ‘You’ve shut your eyes.’ And you’ll never hit the ball that way; if you do, it’ll be pure luck. Pure luck. And you probably won’t get another hit all season!
If you let Peter’s words sink in, what he’s saying is: We can’t shut our eyes to the way we live our life. We’ve got to establish some patterns. We need some priorities. We need what, in other Christian traditions, they call a ‘rule of life.’ We need to add the virtues Peter names here to our lives in a consistent, intentional way. We’ve got to watch what we’re doing and look where we’re going.
And why? Here’s why: The way we live our life reflects on the One who gave us life. The way we live our life reflects on the One who gave us new life in Jesus Christ! When people look at us, guess what they think they’re looking at. When people look at us, what they think they are seeing is a life that has the stamp of God on it. We are named with the name of Christ. We belong to him. And they expect to see him in us!
Earlier today, we read from the book of Ezekiel. We were in chapter 36, where God is talking, and he says something very revealing. He says, ‘The nations will know that I am the Lord....’ How? How will they know? ‘The nations will know that I am the Lord,’ he says, ‘when I am proved holy through you before their eyes’ (Ezek. 36:23). In other words, God says, When others look at you and see me, then they will know that I am the Lord!
Can you see why it’s so important that we live our life like we mean it? Can you see why we have to watch what we’re doing and look where we’re going? It’s not just our reputation that’s at stake, it’s God’s. People will look at us, and what they will see is this: Life in Christ matters, or it doesn’t. It’s worth it, or it’s not. It makes a difference, or it doesn’t make any difference.
In the year 2000, George Barna released the results of a survey on Christianity in America. He discovered that the divorce rate among Christians is slightly higher than that of those who claim no religious affiliation at all. In fact, he said, Christians are three percent more likely to divorce than are other people. Only forty-four percent of Christian teens say they are absolutely committed to their faith, and very few Christians consider their commitment to follow Jesus Christ as the most important goal in life.
I don’t know about you, but it makes me wonder : When people look at us, are they seeing a life that has the stamp of God on it?
How can we watch what we’re doing and look where we’re going in life? How can we set our sites on living a life pleasing to God, a life through which God is proved holy as others observe us?
To our faith, we need to add virtue. To our virtue, spiritual understanding. To these things, we need to add discipline, and to discipline, patient endurance. And to that, sincere devotion, and to devotion, warmth and generous love. And how do we do that?
When Eugene Peterson paraphrases verse 3 of 2 Peter 1 for The Message, he has it say, ‘Everything that goes into a life pleasing to God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God.’ This is no secret. The closer we get to know God, the more intimate we become with Christ, and the more intimate we become with Christ, the more like him we will be. And the more like him we are, the more his character will shine through. And he will be ‘proved holy’ through us before the eyes of all who look.
But it won’t happen by accident! We have to watch what we’re doing and look where we’re going. We have to be intentional. We can’t close our eyes and expect everything just to fall into place. I guess what I’m saying is: We can’t give it the usual effort and expect anything unusual to happen. In one of his books, in fact, Craig Groeschel says, ‘When we’re talking about a human life and what it’s really worth, “usual” would be inexcusable’ (Chazown, p. 13). Inexcusable!
The long and the short of it is: If we want to uphold God’s reputation, we have to live our life like we mean it.
