Are You Alive Yet?

You are dead. Don’t worry too much about it because I’m dead, too.

Jesus left the land of the living to show us how to join him there. That’s what Christmas celebrates: Jesus leaving the land of the living, coming to earth, and showing us the way (actually acting as the Way) to the land of the living. So, right now, you are actually dead.

Are you confused yet? I am, too. However, one recent morning I had a moment of clarity. I focus so much of my life on living fully, being alive, making the most of my days, and so on. This is good. However, what if life is about more than now? What if right now is just the appetizer?

I make life about me so often. Sure I sprinkle in some God and good deeds periodically, but really it’s about me. However, what if I’m really just this little infant soul that’s slowly waking up? Having trust in Jesus’ ability to cleanse me from my sins and bring me into relationship with God, I do believe I’m alive. But I still feel so dead.

What if this life is really just preparing me for the true awakening that will come at the end of this life? I always look at Jesus’ crucifixion with great sorrow, but ultimately it led to amazing joy – probably for Him as much as for mankind. He woke up again. He reunited with His Father and made a way for me and you to do the same.

If that’s all true, why am I sitting here on my butt letting my life waste away? Why don’t I get up and do something awesome? Why don’t I act like I’m this infant about to be born into an amazing world and right now I get the opportunity to knowingly prepare myself? I get to choose to hiccup to build my lungs and to push against the uterine wall to strengthen and prepare myself for the great adventure that will come.

Perhaps a tragedy and sacrifice we overlook in the Jesus story is Jesus essentially dying just to take on flesh and become a man. As I type with Christmas music in the background, I’m lost in a whole new wonder of who this God-Man actually was and the amazing thing He did so I could have relationship with Him.

Are you alive yet?