Day 4270 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Matthew 23:34 NIV

The difference

Thanks to what I know a mind which thinks entirely too often about entirely too much I’ll readily agree that it’s perhaps a distance so small that it may in truth not be there at all. And indeed, I do find lately that my mind’s so cloudy that I often feel as if I’m just coming up with the most random of stuff in my still trying to find something worth saying. And maybe this will come out as so many of these do anymore and leave the point, the purpose of it all lying beaten and broken upon the floor a mind flooded with entirely too many thoughts of which to ever make sense.

But still, as of this morning at least, I do find that I do feel that there is a difference to be found between a life well lived and a life lived well.

And in fact I think it’s such the difference that it designs both danger and disaster but so too delight and devotion. Which pair you find depending entirely upon whichever side of the line you may happen to find your mind, your life in regard to what I put forth as this divide.

But alas it is one so small that I imagine most of us will go an entire lifetime failing to fathom it even being there. And that’s because it’s the same. Or so I used to think. And in truth a life well lived and a life lived well do seem to show the same seal, to sing the same song. And that’s entirely because all along we’ve all of us thought that the entire purpose of life was to enjoy it. To find joy within. To do those things, and only those things, which bring us comfort and friendship and fun.

Yes, to us the entire lay of this life as is lived under the sun is one to be lived doing what we love and hopefully being loved whilst doing it.

Doesn’t always work like that, does it?

In fact as I sit here on this brighter than normal November morn I find that for some time my life has been this strange mix of things I enjoy doing that I feel I’m not doing right nor then well as well as those things which I’m not so fond of that I somehow feel as if I accomplish better than those which I wish I was doing better at.

Take these posts for example, I ask daily that God takes them wherever they need to go and yet by the end of pretty much every single one I’ve found that I feel as if I’ve failed. That they’re too long, the point therefore lost in the length, the focus oftentimes seeming to be the number of words rather than the message they send.

And I don’t feel right about that even though writing these posts is one of the very few things that I do every day that I feel good doing.

It’s like I’m doing well to do them but so often I feel as if I’ve not done them well.

And indeed, I feel the same story is there to tell of life itself. Because it’s clear to see that there are those who are focused on that wide-open road aimed unto a life well lived. And they’re trying to accomplish that hope within the breadth and width of want and wish. Again, the overall tendency toward all of life for all of us has always been to do whatever you want within. Have fun. Do what makes you happy. Chase after those things which make you feel good.

Live your life here to the full of all that this world is full of.

That, to us, is a life well lived. In other words it’s a life we’ve lived to the max. It’s that life we spent soaking up all we could of this place in which we can. It’s the one so commonly spent upon the pursuit of all that’s pretty and popular and prone then to tickling our pride. Yes, we all want to live a good life, a full life, and it’s because of this that we all know what it’s like to seek a life well lived.

But what then can we know of a life lived well?

That’s where this verse comes in to offer some help. For you see, this message from Jesus found over in Matthew lists off some outcomes that no one would ever agree would add up to a life well lived. Because, again, a life well lived is one we live within all the best this world has to offer and our enjoying, experiencing, tasting, touching, seeing as much of it as we possibly can.

And, well, there’s nothing good or exciting or in any way possibly enjoyable about such realities as being killed or crucified or flogged before a crowd.

Those things sound horrible!

And that’s because they are. And yet here they’re things which are promised to happen unto those who come into this world carrying a message of hope and love and mercy. And indeed, the Bible is packed with stories of those who were doing God’s work, upholding His will, sharing His Word who were hated and hurt because of it.

And, to us who’ve long believed that we were here to only chase after the very best things in life, that doesn’t sound like a life well lived.

But maybe it’s because they were focused rather on a life lived well.

And I think that the difference comes down to the direction. For one is aimed at this place and our seeking here always the best of whatever we can find or feel. But the other is focused elsewhere and agrees that we’re only here to point toward the same however such can be done.

And, well, one of the easiest ways, the clearest ways to open blinded eyes to the danger hiding in the normal way of life that everyone lives here seeking to have their fun here is to show them how bad things really are here. And nothing accomplishes that better than seeing people being, well, killed and crucified and flogged.

It’s a really big message in fact.

Because it’s one that sends the message that this world isn’t what we so often want it to be. That this place isn’t our paradise and that nor can it be. It’s that in the pursuit of a life well lived so many have become so focused on such things as fun and fame and fortune that they’re willing to kill those who get in their way, even should they do so merely by saying words they don’t want them to say.

And yet we consider those who face such miserable outcomes as those who lived bad lives. As those who missed their chance to enjoy their ride. As those who could have had all the fun that we know well how to have but instead chose to make people so very mad that they ended up losing their lives because of it. And indeed, to we who think that this world has so much to offer that’s commonly considered so good, to lose your life means then you’ve not lived it well.

Because, as far as we can tell, a life well lived is one lived to the good of all that’s here. It’s one filled with all this world has to offer, and thus one fulfilled as far as the flesh can tell because, well, the flesh loves being so catered to and coddled as this world daily offers to.

And thus those who go without the fun, the friends, the fame, they’re then the ones who missed out.

But what if they’re the only ones who lived well?

Because there is a difference between a life well lived and one lived well. And I know that this truth we can tell because Jesus elsewhere promised that one day we’re all going to hear Him say either “Well done” or “Be gone”. And the difference which will define which we find ourselves hearing is determined by whether we lived our lives well according to the world or rather according to Him.

Let us not forget then the outcome that He came to find.

Was it what many would consider a life well lived? Nope. And why? Because, well, look at His life. Jesus lived but roughly 30 years or so, less even than I’ve already lived at almost 39. He had at most 12 close friends, one of which betrayed Him for a few silver coins. He spent His time up until such betrayal, which resulted in His being mocked and then beaten and then crucified before a crowd that laughed at Him while He suffered, being hated and argued with and fought against by those He’d come to help and heal.

Yes, He came to be poured out and in fact was. He lived on the outskirts, the fringes, often stole away to lonely and desolate places to just be alone with His Father. He suffered, He cried, He hurt, He lost.

His life.

No part of that would anyone consider a life well lived as within it all we see only a life lost. That He missed out on all the fun we find and all the pleasure we feel and all the friends we’ve made. That He failed to know the best of this place. That He didn’t live a life worth living because, as far as we care to measure, the only version of life worth living is that one in which we’re always loved, we always have fun, we always feel good, we’re always full and our every desire then fulfilled.

Because we’re all lost in this pursuit of a life well lived.

But friends, He’s the only One who’s ever lived a life perfectly. And, yeah, He was treated horribly while He did it, even unto the point in which His time here was ended at the hands of those who just wanted Him gone and out of their way of their continuing to live their lives to the full.

Something they insisted upon because they’d become full of only what this world calls a life well lived.

That one in which fun is the point and friendship the prize. That version of life in which everything always goes right and feels endlessly good. That kind where we miss out on nothing but rather only find always our fill of everything we like and enjoy.

That, to us, is a life well lived.

But friends, our focus should be a life lived well.

And that’s the one in which we do what we’re here to do rather than only whatever our flesh may want us to. It’s the one where our focus is on faithfully upholding His will instead of our own. That version in which we choose to chase only the cause for which He put us here and that is to testify to the truth of the Gospel however and wherever that may be done.

I’m reminded here of the time in which a couple of the Apostles were put on trial, told to stop talking about Jesus, beaten because they had been and hopefully to really help them get the message to really shut up about Him, and yet they left excited that they’d been so horribly treated as it meant to them that they’d done well at what He’d called them to do.

Yes, they rejoiced that they’d gotten to suffer in their service of the Savior.

We don’t see suffering as something to rejoice over, do we?

No, we see all such pain and misery as only evidence that we’ve missed out on the comfort and commendation that we so often seek. And indeed, those are the things that so many continue to think constitute a life well lived. Because a life well lived lacks nothing in terms of enjoyment and comfort and pleasure. And it’s easy to see why so many still chase after that version of life. It’s because it feels good, it looks good, it sounds good and thus seems good.

But that which is pleasurable to the flesh is condemnable before God.

And so, though it makes no sense, the actual way to live this life well isn’t proven in pleasure or success but rather in suffering, in hardship, in being hated. Why? Because there is a difference, a divide. And it’s one found in whether we do well or simply seek to feel well. And sure, this world’s really managed to blur that line to the point in which most think that they’re living their lives right only whenever everything feels good.

Maybe that’s never been the point.

Maybe how we feel, what we face, how bad it hurts, maybe none of that matters.

Maybe all that matters is again our spending ourselves, pouring ourselves out as if living offerings, sacrifices sacrificing our ability to do everything other than whatever He calls us to do. Yes, maybe we’re here to learn how to deny the flesh rather than cater to it. Maybe the point of this journey is to welcome the storm so that we can one day experience the calm. Maybe we should seek more to be hated than to be loved. Maybe our lives will be considered to have been lived well only when we do.

Why?

Because He did it the same way.

Indeed, Jesus came to take the blame, to endure the hate, to suffer the loss. And He did it all, culminating in His dying on a cross, only to be lifted thereafter unto Heaven where still awaits a happily ever after for whoever dares to follow Him through their share of a life spent carrying crosses and being mocked and hated and argued with and rejected.

A life lived well as it’s the only life that seeks to uphold His will rather than our wants.

There’s the difference. And it’s the one determined by where we focus. Do we focus on this world? Do we make our pleasure our pursuit? Do we do whatever it takes to avoid the pain, the suffering, the shame? Do we seek out those ways in which we can please people so as to avoid their wrath?

Do we not yet understand that if we do we’ll only incur His?

Friends, friendship with the world is enmity against God. And thus clearly then friendship with God means enmity against the world.

And He told us plain, verbatim even, that we will here be hated. Says pretty much the same thing right here in this verse in Matthew 23. That we who follow Him will follow Him through an at least decent chance of our experiencing some of what He experienced too. But He also told us plainly that if we won’t follow Him, crosses in tow, then we’re not worthy of Him and of us He will not claim to know.

The difference then between a life well lived and one lived well will be held within the outcome we find at their end. One will end with Him saying we’ve done well whereas the other will end with some being sent to hell.

Why?

Because a life well lived is one lived without ever stopping to worry about the consequence as all that was ever allowed to matter was the comfort, the enjoyment, the pleasure and success and friendship. And the other is willing to lose all of those, to miss out on all of those, to surrender all of those unto the hope that we will hear Him say welcome home.

There is a life well lived and it’s the one lived by most here. You can tell it by how enjoyable it is, how commendable it is, how impressive and important everyone else says it is. But too then is there a life lived well and it’s that one that few wish to experience as it’s not quite so easy, not quite so fun, doesn’t find us having many friends and probably having more pain and suffering and sorrow instead.

So be it.

Friends, we’re not here to be liked. We’re not here to have fun. We’re not here to feel good. Sure, those things can happen and have happened and that’s fine. But the problem is that for so many they’ve become the point. Those things define for most the best life you can live.

We shouldn’t be so worried about finding our best in this part that ends.

That’s why He calls us to store up our treasure in Heaven!

It’s so that we have something to look forward to finding rather than a bunch of stuff we dread one day leaving.

And sadly most are living their lives so well, according to the world, that they will in fact lose their best life because they’d focused only on living here the same. But for a few, an increasingly small few, they’ll find their best life waiting for them at the end of what wasn’t the best life.

Again, that’s how it worked out for Christ.

He suffered here. He hurt here. He was hated here.

And now He’s in Heaven enjoying all the peace and it perfected that He’s promised is waiting at the end of not a life well lived but rather a life lived well.

The difference is where we find His will. If His will is our focus then we’ll have lived these lives well. If it isn’t, well, many will say we’d lived well but we’ll be sent to hell because we focused only on the flesh and doing only whatever it considered best.

Many a life has been eternally lost because it was lived unto humanity’s applause.

But thankfully some have lost their lives to the sound of humanity’s hatred as was eventually replaced by the roar of Heaven welcoming them home.

Which outcome do you want to know?

Just know that what we find here, feel here will be replaced by its counterpart. So welcome the pain, the hurt, the sorrow and shame. Not because they’re easy or fun or therefore anything that anyone else seeks to find or experience but simply because such things have been experienced by those who’ve left here to find their reward with Him.

And that’s the point. It’s that our reward isn’t here even though it does seem everyday as if so many seem to be finding theirs. Let them. As He said, leave the dead to bury their dead and spend your life following Him.

For while many would say that’s not a life well lived, it’s the only version of life that’s lived well.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold