I wanted to write about something I was thinking about as I drove to work today (as my holidays are over 😢).

And I was thinking about permanence. I have a beautiful view on my way to work. We drive, burn gas, breathe, eat food, get older, work – hopefully get some satisfaction out of that contribution. But much of that has no permanence – the second it’s over, its gone with no imprint on eternity, mostly with no imprint even right after its over, never mind eternity.

I want my life to leave a mark, I’ve made a lot of mistakes but I want God to happy about who I am, being his child. I think if you don’t have kids, you will have a hard time understanding God… not that I claim to understand his mind, only the perspective that being a parent brings.

I have suffered for my kids, every real parent has sacrificed for their children, even if they don’t realize it. I’m not going to talk about what I’ve done – I’m not important, God loves us because we are his children, and for all our mistakes, he still loves us.

Unlike God however, we don’t have a perfect and Holy nature and perfect moral character; we swim in sin, God refuses to even be tempted by sin. That is one of the reasons we find it hard to accept hell. God can’t be God and be “Ok” with sin. He hates it and rejects it, and if that is all (as his child) we bring to the table, God will have no part of us and we will be separated from him forever.

I’m not a very nice person, I’m not going to pretend that I am, God knows our truth, he knows our hearts. I’ve accepted the fact that I’m a fallen sinful man who needs God in the worst way. When you accept Christ into your heart and he lives inside you – you can have real permanence in your life. The things you do – praying for people, praying for your enemies and people who hate you, that is God’s heart on the matter.

A parent hates to see their children fighting, it matters much less who is right or wrong, what matters is that they forgive and love each other – I know I personally hate seeing my children in conflict with each other – and how is that different than how God sees us?

I can’t give any lessons in morality, all I can really say is that I want God present in my everyday life, when I wake up, when I drive to and from work, and when I go to bed. His spirit living in me is what I want most. The problems we have right now with the whole world, all the conflict, disagreements, all the hate – none of that garbage is going to be in heaven. And if you hate your bother or sister (the people around you) here on earth, you are not fit to be in heaven. It’s hard to separate the thought of a person from their sin, but we are commanded, not asked, not suggested, not encouraged, we are commanded to love the people around us – we done all these bad things (sin, lying, cheating, stealing, etc.) to Jesus when we sin, and we expect him to forgive – that forgiveness we get from him is predicated upon (or duplicated to us) from Jesus. We forgive, he forgives – we don’t forgive, he won’t either.

That is why I’ve forgiven everyone who has done wrong to me, when I die and see Jesus, I don’t want any hang ups. I want a clean slate.

Jason