Mangos

Recently, one of our routines has been centered around a certain yellow (or sometimes green) fruit. After a long day at school we would come home, get out our mangoes and knives, and sit around our table sharing the sweet but sometimes sour fruit and things from our sweet but sometimes sour lives. One day last week as we sat eating our mangoes we discovered that as we get farther away from mango season the mangoes become less satisfying. The next time we shared mangoes we discovered that yet again the taste was somewhat bitter and unsatisfying. We were quite disappointed because we have tasted delicious mangoes and we know how good they can be. While this was happening I started comparing mangoes to life that we live on earth. Sometimes, life is bitter or unsatisfying and deep inside we know that is not how life is supposed to be. And sometimes we even try tasting again and are baffled at why we are still unsatisfied. I have been reading a book entitled Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper and I would like to quote something he wrote.

"Christ has come into this mutinous world, which he made for his own glory, and paid for an amnesty with his own blood. Everyone who lays down the weaponry of unbelief will be absolved from all crimes against the Sovereign of the universe. By faith alone enemies will become happy subjects of an everlasting kingdom of justice and joy. Advancing this cause with Christ is worth your life."

The words he used portray to me the seriousness of sin against God, but the story does not end there. Christ paid for our crimes with His own blood. All we have to do is believe. Once believing we enter into God's kingdom of justice and joy. The previous four sentences are worth both living and dying for. And that is where life becomes satisfying, when we live and die for the purpose we were created for and realize that Christ alone can satisfy. Only by living the life Christ intends for us are we "eating the best mangoes." Piper wrote that once we come face to face with the reality of Christ and what He paid for us we "can't go on with business as usual -- doing your work, making your money, giving your tithe, eating, sleeping, playing, and going to church." Instead he urges that we "...pray and think about how your particular time and place in life fits into the great purpose of God to make the nations glad in Him." That does not mean that Christians must leave secular work to be missionaries because it is clear that God places most Christians in secular work as a mission and for His glory. And just being a missionary does not guarantee that you are being intentional about making the nations glad in Christ. Living wholeheartedly for Christ, being satisfied in Him, and living and dying to make Him known where we are at are ways we can make the most of life. Even sitting here thinking about Piper's words and the Gospel, I am convicted. When I ask myself, "Am I doing all God wants me to do to make the nations glad in Him? Am I showing others by my life that Christ is all satisfying? Am I living like I truly believe that dying for Christ is better than life?" My honest answer to those questions must surely be "no." Oh, how I long to make those words true and evident in my life. In short, mangoes have become to me a reminder that Christ alone can satisfy. When I see one my heart is redirected to focus on the one who in giving His life gave me life and the importance of making much of Him in everything.