Sadly,
summer is over! I hope
that you had a great
time with things like camping, boating, road trips, concerts,
reunions and weddings. Summer
is made for having fun and creating memories.
Unfortunately,
memories and good times have one inherent problem. Peter describes
this issue
by saying, “You know that it was not with perishable things such
as silver or
gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life…” (1 Peter
1:18). Notice the words
“perishable” and “empty”. Peter’s
point is that temporary events cannot
produce lasting joy. Even
the most expensive
things that you have and your most wonderful memories will fade
over time and leave
you feeling empty and incomplete.
For
example, I love going to concerts!
However,
as soon as the band sings the last song, some of the excitement of
that night starts
to drain away. It is a
good memory, but part
of the joy that I felt while the concert was happening is gone. The same is true of
vacations. You look at the
pictures and remember some wonderful
things, but you cannot feel exactly what you felt when you were
there. The memory degrades
and corrupts over
time. That is why people
continually
search for the next big, exciting thing to do, buy or experience. If our joy is based on having
or doing
certain things, then we will always be forced to keep chasing the
next thing,
because the good feelings leak away.
Peter
then gives them a solution to this problem.
Instead of temporary happiness, he tells them to focus on
their eternal
hope (verse 21). This hope
is not based
on what they have or what they have done.
Rather, it is centred on God and his nature. It is shown in the “precious
blood of Christ”
(verse 19) and the fact that God set this plan in motion “before
the creation
of the world” (verse 20). This
hope gives
us a bigger picture and it brings meaning and worth to every day,
not just our
best ones.
Jesus
said that when we build our life on things that do not last, we
will always be
rebuilding. However, when
we centre our
life around him, we find everything that we need. (Matthew
7:24-27).
Fun
things are great, but we cannot base our life on them.
Enjoy your days,
but live in your
hope.
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