If These Walls Could Talk
Whether we’re just embarking upon life’s journey, whether we’re well on our way, and whether it’s been a smooth ride or more like a series of unfortunate events, if we were to examine the framework of the structure of the life we’ve lived so far, what might the it reveal about the life we’ve pursued  – would it reflect pursuit of the good life, a happy life, a peaceful life, a purposeful life, or perhaps the goal often championed by current popular culture – our best life?  Although we may see strength or weakness as an individual character trait, we don’t typically assess our life that way…

Define Life
But what if we started out to build or to rebuild a strong life. How might we reimagine life, and how would we go about fortifying our it? What questions should be asking ourselves? Two thoughts that immediately spring to mind are: define “life” and define “strong.”

Well In this series, we’ve already begun to look at some features of strength from our defacto lens – a Judeo Christian, biblical point of view. And there’s so much we’re taught about what a strong life looks like for a Christ follower, that we couldn’t possibly approach exhausting those teachings in this series. So we’ll get back to strength, but today I’d like to take a look at “life.” – seriously, what’s that about???

Well to begin, let’s approach it from its most fundamental, pragmatic context, and these definitions more or less sum up the practical physical application:

“the condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth, reproduction, functional activity, and continual change preceding death.”

the animate existence … of an individual.

Well, certainly there’s no human life; no animate human existence without the breath of God.

“Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” – Genesis 2:7

In fact my son reminded me that even the Tetragrammaton, YHWH for God’s personal proper name, Yahweh, can only produce the sound of a breath when pronounced … Luv that! Try it … “YHWH” …

It is indeed Yahweh’s sustaining breath – the very life force coursing through our frame that finds us awakening to His new mercies each day. In its absence our flesh returns to dust and we find our souls repositioned along the continuum of eternity. The question is: having been given God’s breath – that life-activating power us; the power that animates our being – now what?

Well, now begins the journey … our journey home  … our life’s journey to Our Father’s house. There’s much to say about what that journey should or could look like, but today’s question put another way is: was activation/animation sufficient for the passage? Was it in and of itself, enough to get us to our destination – to lead us home?

What Does it Profit a Man…
Well, in a word “No.” We’ve been journeying since the Eden eviction, and our expedition hasn’t always looked that great. Tragically our original parents made some decisions that initiated a few unfortunate outcomes: like the need to actually make our way back home for one; the suffering along the way; death – the return to dust; and the risk of our souls being eternally separated from The One who breathed life into us to begin with. Yikes! Pretty much consequences born of wander lust. It’s the predictable human pattern 1) Create distance from God to accommodate rebellion 2) Allow pride and disobedience to lead us into the trap of wandering even further away and pursuing things outside of His will by any means necessary, 3) loss of favor, loss of blessing, loss of life. And the pattern repeats itself generation after generation – Gain the whole world. Lose our soul. Gain the whole world. Lose our soul, and on and on it goes through wars, and rumors of wars, and plagues, and famine and sickness and disease, and strife and murder and anarchy.

“…For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
Mark 8:36

Can These Dry Bones Live?
So what now – now that we’ve taken the breath of life freely given to us by the Ancient of Days and abused and misused it and drained it from our humanity – generationally, historically, politically, socially, situationally, personally, militarily, culturally, economically, intentionally, unintentionally etc., etc.

Is there any hope of restoration, of resurrection? Well fortunately The Lord’s loving answer, full of grace and mercy for us, is a resounding “Yes!” He will breath on us again, and we will live – as He says here before the arrival of The Christ on Earth.

“Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:” Ezekiel 4-5 (Read full Chapter).

And here, even beyond personal restoration and a kind of resurrection that brings us home to our own land, He provides the eternal kind, that leads us to our eternal home – back to the Father. He’s given us The Christ, and the power of His resurrection. Wow! Amen!

“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. Mark 8:35

As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. John 10:15

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me”. John 14:6