Eternity Calls

A Reflection on the Second Reading for September 29th, 2019:
​Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

​1 Timothy 6.11-16

As for you, man of God; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will bring about at the right time. He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no human being has ever seen or can see; to him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.

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When I first began learning about Christianity, there were many strange things to try to wrap my mind around. As such, I am very conscious that these things can be barriers for those who do not acknowledge God or Jesus. It makes sense to me that people would reject Christianity on the basis of what they know to be true or possible according to their human experience. How we know what we know is a complex process, an aspect of the movement toward faith that fascinates me.


Eternal life is one of those difficult concepts that is deeply embedded in the Christian story. If we allow that there is an eternal realm, it changes everything. Everything! If I live bogged down in the difficult details of life, paralyzed by the pain of earthly existence, and allow that to hold me captive in anger, fear, judgment, and hopelessness, I have lost the “good fight”. If it is true that Jesus miraculously rose from death and lives, there is hope beyond the life I know because Jesus is God. There is hope beyond my earthly life because He shows me (when I find the courage to follow Him) how to live with righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness, all of which draw me into deeper connection with the world around me. And this is something I know for sure.


I was impacted this past week by a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., who said this:

“On some positions cowardice asks the question, ‘Is it safe?’ Expediency asks the question, ‘Is it politic?’ Vanity asks the question, ‘Is it popular?’ But conscience asks the question, ‘Is it right?’ And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one’s conscience tells one that it is right.”


I can get so caught up in my emotion and my bias that I forget how to be present. I forget how to be un-self-conscious, to listen to my conscience (which is God’s voice), and therefore I lose the ability to reflect Life and Love itself.

"Returning to prayer, which is retreating to the place where I sit with the eternal, merciful nature of God, is necessary for me to find peace."

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Returning to prayer, which is retreating to the place where I sit with the eternal, merciful nature of God, is necessary for me to find peace. It is where all my worries and emotion can rest, where my finite human power is acknowledged and held in love, where my gratitude builds and the strength of God helps orient me toward what is true; because truth is sometimes difficult to admit, let alone to act on. 


Let us pray:

Heavenly Father, in gratitude for eternity, which is where You dwell, help me to lose myself more and more in Your eternal presence. In the midst of my interaction with others, help me to forget myself and remember eternity so that I might be a more accurate reflection of You to those around me. You are righteous, faithful, loving, enduring, and gentle. You are God of all. Amen.


Lindsay Elford

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