To Live is Christ

   As a kid, a youth, a teenager, a young adult, I was nervous about the idea of heaven.  Not because heaven is a bad place, but because I wasn't keen for the life I knew to end.  You get used to this thing called living, even if you haven't done it that long, and the idea of just one day not doing it anymore made me nervous.  I liked life.  I enjoyed playing, learning, reading, liesure; the sunshine, sports, driving cars, going out with girls.  One of my favorite things to do is sit outside on a beautiful day and smoke a cigar and read.  They don't do that in heaven.
   It's understandable that we might be nervous about life after this life, but it needn't be.  As Paul said of himself, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21).  This is a fine Sunday School statement, but don't you kind of hate Paul for saying it?  I mean, come on, weren't there things he wanted to keep doing on earth?  As a matter of fact there were.  He goes on to say, "If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell."  This is the conundrum - or rather the blessing - of Paul's life.  If he lives, good.  If he dies, good.  Either way it's all about Jesus.
   Here of course is the key: you have to know what it means, "to live is Christ."  I believe that means you have to be absolutely in love with him.  You have to come to that place where you meet Jesus and decide that this is everything.  This life in God is everything.