A Word About Voting, …

Eugene Peterson’s The Message translation of Lk. 17 caught my attention the other
day. He translated v. 33 of Luke 17: ‘If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you’ll
lose it, but if you let that life go, you’ll get life on God’s terms.’ Lk. 17:33 An interesting
phrase: ‘… life on God’s terms.’ It sounds, well, almost un-American, doesn’t it?
Freedom in Christ is not the same thing as ‘freedom in America.’ As a citizen of the
United States, I get to vote. I get to have a say in the way things happen. But, as a
citizen of the Kingdom? No vote. No seeking a plurality, or majority, or consensus. As I
lose my life in Him, I get ‘life on God’s terms.’

The fact that I might not particularly like the sound of life on God’s terms is of little
consequence to him, of course, being the Sovereign that he is. God works for my
benefit and His glory, whether I like the sound of it or not.  I hear the ping of the
hammer.  In the midst of the fray, I see sparks flying as His formational hand changes
me, transforms me, one day at a time. I lose some of ‘me,’ and I gain more of His
likeness. Slowly, perhaps imperceptibly, He fashions and forms my inner man into what
He had in mind when He thought of me. Although I am ‘made in His image,’ God
doesn’t look like me. He wants me to look like Him. And, I must avoid the temptation of
thinking that ‘being made in his likeness’ means the same thing as ‘being made into
something he likes.’  I must continually re-settle the issue of ‘life on His terms.’ God
doesn’t like me. God loves me. And life on His terms means being brought into
conformity with the image of His Son.

It’s no wonder the formational years never end, in my life. The noise of the hammer
striking anvil; the heat of life searing flame, or perhaps the spinning, spinning, spinning
of the Great Potters wheel that never stops fashioning the soft clay called … me.  I
need a lot of work. And if I imagine, in my wildest dreams, that I’ve got a lot of living
ahead of me, well then, I’ve got a lot of dying ahead of me, too. I don’t get a vote. I’d
better buckle up. In the words of that old war horse, the Apostle Paul, ‘I am crucified
with Christ (every day) nevertheless, I live (every day) and the life I live every day I live
by faith in the Son of God who loves me (every day) and gave his life for me.’ If I grasp
and cling to life on my terms, I’ll lose it, but if I let that life go, I’ll get life on God’s terms.
No matter how you measure it, that’s an incredible trade. His ever-present touch brings
comfort, health, learning, and ‘forever change’ to an open and hungry heart.

‘If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you’ll lose it, but if you let that life go, you’ll
get life on God’s terms.’ Lk. 17:33