Life on the edge is where explorers, astronauts and extreme athletes choose to live. It is demanding and risky which is why they are so admired. Yet in another sense, we all live on some edge – it could be financial constraints, health limitations, emotional well-being or our personal abilities. These all will ebb and flow like the tide through our lives. The edge is always on the move. There is another more important edge – the edge of eternity. All human beings share one thing – we are all one heartbeat away from knowing if eternity exists beyond the grave. It would be foolish to dismiss it as a possibility and so it needs thorough consideration before that last heartbeat. David Tomlinson who was Mr Banks in Mary Poppins was first married to widow Mary Hiddingh – on 2nd December 1943, she killed herself and her two sons in a murder–suicide by jumping from a hotel in New York City. How many of us have had near-fatal accidents when we too could have suddenly crossed the edge into the next bit of eternity? Whether it be a sudden or gradual crossing, it comes to all of us.
- ‘Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity’ – Henry Van Dyke
- ‘We, as extremely complex creatures, desperately need to know this story of how the universe creates complexity and why complexity means vulnerability and fragility’ – David Christian
Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, died at the ripe old age of 99 in 2021 whereas his older sister Princess Cecilie died aged just 26 on 16th November 1937 along with her husband, two of her children and seven others in a flight from Frankfurt. The sadness was compounded as not only was Princess Cecilie eight months pregnant but her remaining child Johanna died two years later of meningitis. In August 1979, Lord Louis Mountbatten was blown up with three others in a small boat just off the shore whilst they were checking lobster pots and fishing. On 30th August 1997, at the age of 36 with everything ahead of her, Princess Dianna was killed in a car crash with Dodi Fayed (aged 42) and driver Henri Paul (aged 41) in Paris. All fragile, all living for short or long on the edge of eternity.
- ‘God has made everything fitting in its time, but has also placed eternity in their hearts, without enabling them to discover what God has done from beginning to end’ – Ecclesiastes 3:11
- ‘My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me’ – Psalm 31:15
Whether you be someone famous like explorer Robert Falcon Scott, astronaut Catherine Coleman, athlete Serena Williams, actor Tom Cruise or someone unknown to most people, we all have it in common that we are on the brink of eternity. The question is whether we realise it and how it shapes our lives. Saul was a cruel, intolerant, proud and angry man living with hatred in his heart against all those calling themselves Christians, followers of Jesus Christ. Once he realised that Jesus truly was the son of God, he knew that he’d been living with everything upside down and needed to totally change. It was tough for him to do this but his ‘living on the edge’ meant that he now put Christ at the centre of his life, knowing that if he was to die at any moment it would now be safe. As he says: ‘For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain’ (Philippians 1:21). So radical was this transformation that he even changed his name to Paul with the meaning of ‘humility’. A vision of the risen Christ Jesus and knowing that his tomb was empty convinced Paul that he should now live on the edge with and for Christ as death is no longer to be feared.
- ‘For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord’ – Romans 8:38-39
- ‘So I tell you, continue to ask, and God will give to you. Continue to search, and you will find. Continue to knock, and the door will open for you’ – Luke 11:9
Such a realisation of the power of God over death is possible for everyone, even in the 21st century. Realising that makes you able to live with the fragility of life with confidence because you are already living in eternity. With this conviction, you can face every edge of changing health, finances, relationships and world events. How do you get it or perhaps renew it? Simple – ask God.
ONLY EVER … Reflections (connect4life.org.uk)
when you PRAY (connect4life.org.uk)
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