pat loughery

In a moment of websurfing while watching a pice of software install again, I saw this invitation:

Do you possess life eternal? Do you have the assurance that if you died today, you would wake up in Heaven, with the Lord Jesus Christ for eternity? Are you sure? If so, praise God! But if not, why not make sure? Why not be certain? I challenge you to ask yourself some very important questions! Please Click here

And it made me think.. is life eternal really something that I can possess, the same way I can possess my car, or the lunch I purchase, or a good book about outlaw bikers? Or is it something more wild and unfettered, like a relationship with my spouse, or my daughter, or joy?

Perhaps one of the core challenges to contemporary Christian faith – if we can measure faith as a true life if discipleship, walking the way of the cross – is that as consumerists we see salvation as a possession, and once we’ve attained it, we move on to our next target. Like a new camera, or the next pair of pants.

But the life of the disciple – the servant of the Kingdom – is nowhere near that simplistic. Perhaps it’s better to talk about life eternal possessing us, a means of recognizing that salvation (now, ongoing, and later) drafts us into a Kingdom that’s not ruled by ourselves anymore.