People with talent make difficult things look easy, whether it be on the sports field or the field of the mind, their skills are seen by others as amazing. What many do not realize is that these skills are natural to most individuals, repetition is the key, continuous practice and an extreme devotion to the chosen craft is essential.
Now of course not everyone is of a physical stature to be in the highest ranks of most sporting venues, and there are many for whatever reason that cannot comprehend certain functions necessary for the mental gymnastics that are required in some areas, but most people are proficient at something. Here is the way of the world though in this area, once those talents are gone, once they begin to be replaced with the inability to continue, these individuals are replaced, the new sports star, the new chess champion, and sadly in many cases, the new husband or wife.
Without someone to appreciate us, many attempt to seek recognition from different sources, in other words, once our need from others diminishes, we do not try harder, we simply move on. Everyone on this planet is replaceable, the problem lies in the fact that when something is lost or taken from us, we tend to attempt to replace that thing, that item, with something similar, something that reminds us of what we once had. You may pick any sporting venue that you like that has been around for decades, the rules may change in part, the uniforms the players wear, in fact the players themselves will inevitably need to be replaced, for age takes its toll on all of us, but the game, as a whole remains the same. We all move on, we all change, we all diminish, and we all die.
It is in fact the only known constant in man, the one truth, but also the one part of life that is least subject to change as a whole, for there are only two avenues that death offers, fear or assurance. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (Jer. 29:11) “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” (Psalm 116:15)
Talent does not stop death, skills, mental prowess, extreme effort, repetitious practice no matter how ardent does not stop death, it is appointed to each of us. (Heb. 9:27) The thoughts of death also only offer two avenues, that of finality or continuance, and it is in this last one that man and our adversary find their footholds, the continuation of “us,” of who we are after the flesh ceases its functions.
Only one man ever had the power over the grave, the Lord Jesus Christ, but there have been two others that did not taste of death, Enoch (Heb. 11:5) and Elijah, (2 Kings 2:11) and one day there will be millions more when the rapture occurs, but that leaves hundreds of billions of individuals who have experienced what all others also know, that we will die. The assurance that those who serve Jesus Christ in this matter of the cessation of life cannot be described with known facts, with proof beyond the Scriptures, it is received by faith, and unless one is saved, they cannot comprehend this truth, it is as foolish to them as the Scriptures promise, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18)
The lasting proof of Christ is not found in signs and wonders, it is not found in miracles, it is not visible to the world, or even in the creation of it, it can only be found in death, in that moment after one closes our eyes here for the last time and opens them in our new home. It only comes by faith, and it is the one thing in all of mankind that cannot be practiced. It is better my friends, to contemplate this truth here, and often, than it is to deny it will happen to you. You only have two avenues to choose from in this matter, fear or assurance, and there is only One who can offer that assurance in truth.
