Have you heard the story of a man who is dying at home in bed? He could smell the aroma of chocolate chip cookies – his favorite – baking in the kitchen. He was on his death bed but he wanted just one more cookie before he died. He crawled out of bed, slowly made his way down the stairs, shuffled over to the counter where the cookies were cooling, reached out to take one final cookie, when he felt a slap on his hand.

“Put that back,” his wife said, “they’re for the funeral!”

I guess everyone wants to have their cookies and eat them too. But sometimes we get stuck working so hard to get more and more cookies that we forget to stop and enjoy them. We say, “as soon as I make enough, I’ll relax and have one.” We think we can build a bigger cookie jar and save them all up for that day that is labeled “as soon as” but before you know it, our lives are as stale as the stored up cookies that we never have the time to enjoy.

How do we keep our lives fresh and alive? Jesus instructs his followers to be “rich toward God.” How does that happen? It begins with love. It starts with the realization that the gift of love is one that can never be taken away.

Jesus proclaimed, love God and love neighbor. This simple yet profound teaching reminds us that a life lived with love as the foundation for all that we do and say will be one that is rich toward God.

We have but one life to live. Tragedy, death, sadness and sorrow are everywhere in this world. Your life, my life, they will be over before we even know what happened. But with our feet firmly planted in eternity we can live now with joy, passion and boldness knowing that a life lived like that is one that is rich toward God.

Marjorie Suchocki writes, “The edges of God are tragedy. The depths of God are joy, beauty, resurrection, life. Resurrection answers crucifixion; life answers death.” When we dive into the depths of God we’ll find joy, life and resurrection.

Grace and peace to you,

Glen

This blog was inspired by John Ortberg’s book When the Game is Over, It All Goes Back in The Box.