Who Do You Appreciate?

One of my high school teachers recently passed away. He and his wife lived in my neighborhood; I would see them when they passed our house on their daily walks. When I was still in high school, I babysat for them on a couple of occasions. I was "friends" with him on Facebook and enjoyed his posts explaining the Scriptures. When I ran into his widow the day of his memorial service, I approached her and offered my condolences. Strange actually, because I'd never said anything more than "hello" to either one of them when I saw them on the street; neither my teacher nor his wife had any clue who I was. The only thing I could really say about him was, "I didn't appreciate him when I had him as a teacher." And I didn't. 

There are some in this world who will one day say the same thing about Jesus. Some of those folks are my friends, some think I am "ridiculous" and "over the top" when it comes to the "Jesus thing." Some of those folks learned early on who Jesus is and either rejected that completely or thought it was sort of a nice tradition and have held onto the teaching in that way. Some of those folks have never really heard but believe the rumors about "the dos and don'ts" and rightfully so, run the other direction. Some of those folks will think they have years to make a decision, will figure a life full of rules and church hymns will be okay when they're old, and count on choosing then. Some of those folks may have legitimately wanted to believe but were told something different by someone, something that was unfulfilling or extremely difficult, something that wasn't even true, but rather than seek God in Scripture where He reveals Himself, they gave up and wrote God off. Some of these folks may have thought that just by being married to someone who believes or having Christian parents they didn't need to have a personal relationship with Jesus, they could just ride someone else's coattails and have faith in their faith. And one day they will say, "I didn't appreciate Him when I had the chance."

My teacher was a person, an individual. I saw him as an out-of-touch, rigid, unrealistic authority. My goal was to pass his class. Not to learn anything, not to build any type of relationship. Follow the rules (sort of), get an "A", and move on. But I missed out on the wonderful person people told stories about. I missed out on memories others had shared. I missed out on a marvelous education by an incredibly intelligent human being. Simply because I couldn't see past my own agenda.  

I grew up going to church. It would be a tremendous stretch for me to believe that God did not exist, but wanting to be a Christian was something I struggled with until I was forty. Maybe I was blind, maybe I never understood what was being taught, maybe what was being taught was wrong and I needed to seek God out in Scripture for myself, maybe I couldn't see past my own agenda even then. But I learned in those years of struggle, there is no hope and no salvation in obeying the rules. I learned I missed a lot of years in which I could have been doing some really great, really hard, really meaningful things. I learned my entire life could have been so much better-- as good as it is now --long before I was forty. I learned tradition is for families to observe or create but is not a criterion for Christianity. I learned that anyone who would believe what their told or put their faith in someone else's faith rather than open the pages of Scripture and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth about God and His plan is a fool, plain and simple. A condemned fool. 

Appreciate Him while you have the chance.

"Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2)