Phil. 2:5: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."
I was profoundly impacted recently by a curmudgeonly old man, teetering two heartbeats from death, who reminded me of the reality of our nature as we transition through the irreversible seasons of life.
Starting with conception, God prepares a spotless soul to enter every human body. And at the moment of birth, each precious little angel is closer to God than they will ever be again.
Why?
According to James, a carnal war rages within us due to the natural desires and beastly inclinations of our mortal flesh: "You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may waste your request on wicked pleasures" (James 4:2-3).
As children, these flawed tendencies begin innocently enough. But from the start, we are ever so gradually already drifting away from the divine nature that spawned our spirits ... or our psyche, if you prefer. Hence, the need to let Christ's supernatural mind be in us, as our opening text admonished!
Similarly, the Apostle Paul said, “In every part of me, I discover something fighting against my mind, and it makes me a prisoner of sin that controls everything I do. What a miserable person I am" (Rom. 7:23-24).
Did you notice the apostle's desperate cry, "What a miserable person I am?"
Sadly, without divine intervention, the nasty, wretched condition of our abysmal disposition grows increasingly worse until we are a shriveled, empty husk of humanity. Stymied at the spectrum's polar opposite end from where our life began, we resignedly wait — teetering two heartbeats from death — for God to inevitably call us home. We've come a long way, baby! Time has not been kind, and neither have we.
Interacting with the elderly fellow mentioned earlier, I remembered Paul's desperate plea: "Who will rescue me from this body that is doomed to die?"
Fortunately, the apostle recognized the solution for his dilemma while there was still time: "Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me" (Rom. 7:25).
But so often, frail humanity fights to the bitter end for the futile right to fix what cannot be repaired without God's help. Yet, we do not want God's help! Even with time rapidly running out, we want nothing to do with God ... not even so much as to hear his name. Non-ambulatory and gasping for breath, we are hell-bent to do it our way while rejecting the one who sent us into this world in the very beginning — little angels, created in his image.
This refusal is especially tragic in light of Christ's compassionate invitation: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).
Don't wait so long to remember your Creator until it's too late — before the fragile thread of your life snaps, your precious thoughts and mind fail, your vital organs stop working, and your daily strength breaks down completely. For eventually, your physical body will decay back into the earth, and your life-breath will return to the God who gave it to you (Eccles. 12:6-7).
