Articles
Through Mortal Eyes
Our default setting is “Life”; that is, we are geared to attend to the aspects of earthly existence. We must breathe, eat, drink, learn, work, rest, sustain relationships, etc. All of these things require time, mental energy and a great deal of focus because things in the earthly realm are subject to decay. We have to work like crazy to keep nature from reclaiming our things, not to mention our very lives.
But we must also make a supreme effort to lift our gaze above the temporal and concentrate on the eternal, to think about our soul and its needs: worship, prayer, study of God’s word, meditation upon Him and acts of selfless service for our fellow man. This, too, takes constant effort because our spirits are likewise subject to entropy (Webster, 2b – “a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder”). That is, if we just “go with the flow,” we will drift away from the things of spiritual significance and let our lives be dictated by the immediate and the mundane.
This leads me to share a recent post by Matt Bassford. We have previously spoken of Matt’s predicament: he is terminally afflicted with ALS and is gradually losing all of his motor skills. This will eventually take his life, and he is using the time he has left to chronicle his journey and help others learn from it. Here was his most recent watershed event in his downward spiral:
“Last Sunday morning was the last time I will ever attempt to assemble with the saints. I say ‘attempt’ because I did not succeed in assembling. It was a debacle. About midway through the debacle, I resolved that I wasn't going to put myself or my wife through such misery anymore. Then, it got worse. I’m simply not capable of going anywhere, even to worship.
“This is bitter. If there is anything on earth that I love, it is the assembly. All of the things that we trivialize with the label ‘the five acts of worship’ fill me with profound joy. I also love the opportunity to connect with my brethren before and after worship. Even when I am visiting an unfamiliar congregation, you might as well give me a key, because when the time comes to lock up, I'll still be around!
“These times have become even more precious to me since my diagnosis. I knew that the time would come when I couldn't make it out anymore, so I strove to make my remaining opportunities to assemble as meaningful as I could. I worked to sink myself into each hymn and prayer. After services, I shunned small talk in an effort to speak to the hearts of my Christian family. Even when I wasn't talking to somebody, I would look around … and pray for each member I saw.
“No more. Now, I am left with the livestream, which is as much like the actual assembly as a photograph of a loved one is like the loved one. You would rather have the photo if you can't have the loved one, but it's not the same.”
Sometimes we hear the admonition, “Life each day as if it were your last.” While this intends to inspire urgency, I believe it overstates the case. There are daily chores that, frankly, if it were my last day on earth, I wouldn’t do: mow the grass, wash the car, vacuum, fix the broken table leg, schedule a driveway sealing, etc. Neither would I watch golf, read a news website, do a crossword puzzle or go to Burger King on my final day of life (well, a Whopper as a last meal would be pretty good). But that does not mean these things are wrong; it just means that they have their place in the normal scheme of things. But a terminal condition certainly changes one’s outlook on what is necessary vs. desired, important vs. extraneous, a good investment vs. a waste of time.
Paul advises: “See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph 5:15-16). Hendriksen comments: “They should not wait for opportunity to fall into their laps but should buy it up, not counting the cost … the opportunity referred to is that of showing by means of their life and conduct the power and glory of the gospel, thus exposing evil, abounding in good works, obtaining assurance of salvation for themselves, strengthening the fellowship, winning the neighbor for Christ, and through it all glorifying God. The opportunity missed will never return. Let it therefore be used to the full” (New Testament Commentary – Ephesians 238, emphasis his). The trick is to learn this degree of focus without today being our last day on earth.
More to Matt’s observation about the joy of worshiping with brethren, the Hebrew writer directs us to “consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (10:24-25). The Centreville congregation has agreed to meet several times per week to try and achieve this goal – “to stir up love and good works.” This does not preclude other gatherings of a social or even spiritual nature apart from the building, but these are made available to enhance and strengthen our spiritual constitution. We have reached this consensus because we believe that, as Scripture teaches, such shared times strengthen and recusing ourselves weakens.
In the past three years I have heard multiple descriptions from various congregations of the negative impact of Covid on this one feature of spiritual life. It seems that the pandemic revealed some fissures of indifference and casual commitment deep in the hearts of some regarding assembling. Some of us warned early on that the term “abundance of caution” would become an excuse for neglect, and livestreaming would displace attendance. Perhaps we need to examine how precious it is to meet with God’s people and worship together. We’ll give Matt the final word:
“After I returned home in defeat last Sunday, I turned on the livestream. One of the hymns led that morning was “Each Step I Take.” In my ever-so-humble opinion, the verses of the hymn aren’t much, but the chorus makes a powerful point. It reads:
Each step I take, I know that He will guide me; to higher ground He ever leads me on; Until one day the last step will be taken, each step I take just leads me closer home.
“In other words, even if, like Abraham, I don't know where I'm going, I still know where I'm going. The steps of the faithful are always bringing them closer to God. In the words of Romans 13:11, salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed” (FB Post, 7/10/23).
