We must take heed, is the thing. We must take heed lest we think we ever age out of foolishness or faithlessness. We don’t. Look at Solomon. Time doesn’t heal. Time tells. It tests. And tries.
Time can make us lazy. After all, who’s watching anymore? It can make us meaner. Angrier. Harder headed. More bitter. More prideful. More selfish.
It can make us freak out. Fear that our lives will end without us ever feeling “alive” again, how ever we might define alive.
We have an opportunity here to examine our own lives and take heed lest we assume we’re beyond blowing them up sky high.
Can we finish well? Yes. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, help me. This kind of thing scares the living daylights out of me. My story is not over and there’s still time to be even more foolish in my future than I’ve been in my past. And that’s saying something.
We CAN finish well. But it will not be accidental. It will not be incidental. It will take humility. It will take a radical mindset like that of the apostle Paul. He adopted one goal. One absolute pursuit. “This one thing I do.” All else was a far and distant second.
It will take everything we’ve got. And the revelation will be that Jesus IS everything we’ve got.
How I thank God for the cross of Christ. How I thank God for his grace. How I thank God that he loves Philip Yancey so much that he wanted him to finish well. To repent. To pivot. To love his wife and his family well. To love the Giver of eternal life well. Thank God, none of us can take that right from Philip. His public life may be over. Beyond repair in our eyes. His private life is not. That’s what’s so amazing about grace.
Jesus, be with them.
Jesus, be with us all.