Two-and-a-Half Seconds of Glory

The best read of my summer has been Crazy Love, by Francis Chan and Danae Yankoski. (see www.crazylovebook.com/). The book gave me a unique perspective on the brevity and importance of a life well-lived. I highly recommend it for a challenging, uncomfortable look at life and your relationship with God.

The authors describe what they call “the movie of life,” where God is the main character and the plot line follows the history of redemption from man’s fall to Christ’s victory over death and sin. They describe a hypothetical situation where you are invited to play a role as an extra in a film, remembering that our brief life on earth is a part of the bigger story of history woven by God. Good stuff!

The illustration reminded me of a friend who landed a role as an extra in X-Men III: The Last Stand. He shows up in three scenes: twice as one of the hundreds of soldiers that turn their backs and flee for their lives, and once in a close-up shot as the two principle characters pause for a 2-1/2 second conversation in a crowd. He’s the soldier who casts a glance in their direction as they continue on their way.

If you hear my friend talk you’d think he was the star of the show. He describes the film, the action, and everything from the perspective of an insider. People who talk to him find it hard to believe that his name does not show up in the credits. He’s hoping that the exposure in this film might land him a future role; perhaps something that might require a brief speaking part – like the cop that says, “hey, stop!” in the scene just before his stunning performance.

I don’t want to mock my friend (his name has been left out to protect the innocent), but I thought of him as I read Crazy Love. We all have a tendency to think that all of life – even our relationship to God – is about us. It’s not. In the light of eternity and God’s story of redemptive history, we’re lucky to get 2-1/2 seconds of glory (Chan suggests that it’s more like two-fifths-of-a-second).

And yet, we’re important to God. We were created “to do good works which God prepared on advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). We’re told that God knows our name and the circumstances of our life (Isaiah 43:1-2). The psalmist speaks of God’s omniscience, knowing when we sit or stand, and hearing our spoken words before they come off our lips (Psalm 139 – read it all!).

How can it be that my life, which in so many ways is a vapour that’s here today and gone tomorrow, can be significant to Almighty, Eternal God? Why would God send His Son to die to redeem me? I don’t have the answers for those questions, and it’s only through revelation in God’s Word that we come to understand these attributes of God. What I do know is that I want to live my 2-1/2 seconds for His glory!

Think on these things.