Colossians 3:1-4:

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him glory.”

We are truly dead men walking. For our end comes soon. The misfits and the freaks—we walk alone in a world that doesn’t understand us. Like a celestial game, we are placed on this path from the beginning, gifted with a book to lead us straight to the gates of heaven. How ridiculous is a residence in this place? It is not our home, nor could it ever be.

This is the preparation before the leap—the breath before the fall. And the closer we grow to Christ, the more like Him we become. Death becomes not something to flee from, but something to hope for. “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21) The more like Christ we become, the closer to eternity we are. And once we pass through death, it will make reality what has been in the making our whole lives. Meeting face to face the King who has been growing inside us all along. A life lived for self is nothing short of tragic waste.

We feel the soul stir inside of us, crying out for the touch of a savior. The only one justified in casting the first stone took it. The only one innocent died to redeem the desperately lost. When we hated Him, He taught us how to love. When we were unfaithful, He stooped to teach us strength. What should have been a world of men nailed to the crosses purchased with their actions was one lonely soul held up by our wrongs. Nailed down with his precious arms was our sin—sin forever condemned to a death we now need not taste. And do I now stand with cold eyes and a petrified heart, watching him die—the kiss of betrayal yet screaming on my lips?

Can it not break the hardest of hearts to know that the only one who will ever truly love us died when we hated him? When we didn’t ask him to? And here angels and demons are locked in epic warfare around us while we watch television. The chains of bondage wear wrists raw on thousands of souls and we’re asleep. My knees are too un-skinned—my cheeks too dry. May God have mercy on our foolish hearts and calloused souls.

Can we really be blameless before God when his children are hungry not twenty miles away? Is it not our obligation to change this world he’s given us? To *“…pray as if it all depends on Him and live as if it all depends on (us)”? Because Paul got it right when he said, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” There is truly no reason to live if it is not to be more like Christ. To kill off this flesh now rather than later—to bare our souls to the world. Can’t you feel the difference? Feel your soul wrestle with your flesh? Which side is winning? When you finally reach our home in heaven, will the voice of Jesus sound strange? Or will it be the voice that you’ve been hearing in your heart all along?

*The Vision – Red Moon Rising (Pete Greig)