I’ll not deny that there is meaning in accomplishments, yet for some  the sole purpose and meaning of a true life is to serve oneself by the merits of a life’s work.

This is a strong statement for sure, but we should not deny that our accomplishments are the most common things in our obituaries: they materialize because we built something, accumulated much, achieved worldly status, or mastered a craft. The obituary is all about leaving a tangible, lasting legacy. For example, do you know who invented the thermometer? Daniel Fahrenheit in 1714. Look him up, you’ll find little more about him than his professional “accomplishments.” Maybe someone said something nice about him on his headstone, but that’s only me speculating. Here’s another example closer to home. I searched AI for records about my football career at the University of Wisconsin. I found little more than a couple archived rosters, one headshot and a team picture. At least there was an acknowledgement that I played “mostly on special units,” and that I was not a starter – “hampered by injuries.” How special was that! (Please leave that out of my obituary). Just say that I earned my Letterman status and played there all four years, and leave it at that.

My point is that worldy acccomplishments seem meaningful at the time, but if you’re lucky a brief obit will end up on some obscure archival record and someday a great, great, great grandchild will look you up. Even if you end up a CEO or the most powerful person in the world, most of what they’ll say about you will be lies or at least exaggerations. Consider Thomas Jefferson, Nepoleon, or even Trump.

But I hear some of you pushing back by saying that you feel your life’s true meaning comes from serving something beyond yourselves – whether that’s family, community,  a cause, or serving other people. And you will say your life is precisly NOT about serving yourself. You believe you have no concern whatsoever about what will be on your tombstone or in Wikipedia. Well, good for you! 

And then there are people who’d say their truest life has little to do with “work” at all—it’s about relationships, experiences, growth, or simply being present.  Your kids are all that matter (then you die).

Did I leave anyone out?

Have you noticed nothing I have said here shows any concern for God? You see the human intellect is particularly prone to this kind of vanity. It neglects or forgets God at almost every turn. This is why the concept of serving oneself and worldly accomplishments seem so wrong. Even for the more honorable case of serving “something beyond oneself. ” It too should be considered absurd, especially if it points back to ourselves and not the Rewarder of a life will lived – legacy is no reward if you are eaten by worms. 

There will be no pat on the back for a life well lived apart from God.  A man’s works unapproved by God are vain, subject to decay and without eternal value. But there is credit given to a life well lived if it is married to the virtue of faith.  This alone has eternal consequence. Write this down, “Faith is not stored in an archival bin, but rather it is lived in eternity,” Bob Graham. It echoes  Hebrews 11:1 and 2 Corinthians 5:7 about a faith that refuses to be fossilized. So don’t give me too much credit.

I’ve been studying Hebrews 11 for the past couple weeks (I’m a slow “learner,” lol ). It’s that great passage on the Triumph of Faith. In vs. 6, where it speaks about pleasing God,  John Calvin opined, “the sole purpose of a true life is to serve His glory, and that will never happen unless knowledge of Him comes first.” He means there are no rewards for our “good life” apart from knowing God and having a faith obedient to his word. Remember our faith (a gift from God) is based on hope and the promises He laid out before us.

The passage in Hebrews begins by asking us to think about Noah’s life. I suppose most think that Noah’s legacy is that “He built an ark?” Or is it that “he became an heir of righteousness which is according  to faith?” (vs. 7). Indeed, it was the latter. God could have just willed a boat into existence.  Noah had faith in the words of God, and they prepared him for obedience – by building the ark.  The sequence is important.  Imagine how his friends mocked him for those 120 years. To imagine this also requires us to imagine  his skills, persistence, and steadfast faith. Faith was his tutor, God’s promises his master and motivation. His obedience came from his faith, and I dare say his God given abilities, too; a lack of both would have hindered him from obeying  God. God made him the right man for the job and he accepted it by faith.

Hebrews 11 goes on to talk about the faith of Abraham, where he was told to go out into a land of promise to receive  his inheritance.  So by faith Abram grew his tribe, possessed the land, conquered his enemies, and accumulated many possessions.  He was “blessed by God” and he changed  his name to Abraham, “father of a multitude.”

The chapter goes on to to tell us about the faith and blessings of Issac, and Jacob, Moses and others. And it goes further …” 32 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets,   33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions,   34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.   (Hebrews 11:32-34) Oh, how good are these resumes, these testimonies,  these obituaries recorded in Wikipedia! These are all things accomplished by faith and through faith.  These are the kinds of things I wish to be found in the archives of my life; A life well lived and blessed by God. And I trust that these kinds of blessings go for all believers.

Now I’ve read Hebrews probably a hundred times, and whenever I think of Hebrews 11 I think of these faithful believers and how whenever they were laid low by adversity their faith carried them through. I look up to these, the father’s of our faith. But in this one hundred  and first reading I came across  verses 35-38. Had I missed them 100 times? Or was I just so set on this being about the battles won and the blessings “acheived” that I missed a more glorious faith?

Up till now Hebrews 11 describes with some success the rewards of the faithful, but now, in verses 35-38  it turns to a different  argument, the not so fun experience of savage persecution, torture, and the occasion when believers are confronted with the extremes of misery. However, Calvin points out that the two arguments do not differ greatly.  In the first case the faithful overcame their enemies, were saved by the Lord, healed, delivered by miracles, and snatched from death in the unusual ways. In the second, others are shamefully treated, despised by the ungodly so much that they had to “wander in the wilderness,  hide on den’s of beasts only to be dragged out and to be beaten, torched, and murdered.” The latter in these verses, he says, “seem to be completely deprived of the help of God.” Their worldly life is completely different  from the faithful who received blessings while they lived.

This is where the difference hit home for me. I think all true believers were saddened by the godless murder of Charlie Kirk. Then I remembered visiting the Martyr’s Cross in the middle of Broad Street in Oxford England. There three believers were burned at the stake for their faith. As I reflected, it was also the exact spot where their victory  of faith by  death seemed to be the more excellent and praiseworthy life –  The life of the Martyr’s.

 I then began to think of my friends burdened by mortal illnesses, their wives inflicted with alsheimers, fathers and mothers grieving the loss of sons and daughters. I have friends recovering from  surgeries in great pain even today. All of these by fortitude and faith, in their weakness, are sustained by their gift of faith. These, like the Martyr’s, will never be guilty of unbelief. I think of how their faith  does not fail under persecution, cruelty, sickness, or the cross. None will deny their God for worldly deliverance. Nor will we, will we?  We hear even now from God’s word Christ saying that if we wish to preserve our lives in this world we shall lose them for the sake of eternity. And I hear Calvin saying, “If therefore  there is any real love of the future resurrection occupying a place in our hearts, it will easily lead us to contempt of death. We must only live so as to live to God, and whenever we cannot live to God we must gladly and willingly meet death,”

 Of which persuasion are you? These, in verses 35-38 are not the greatly blessed fathers. I can humbly say I hope to be in the first group. But in a special, blessed way,  those in the second are overcoming all their torments by an upgraded faith. They are firm in their faith by the hope of a blessed resurrection. I think  the lesson here is more about the promise  than the blessings.

I take encouragement from this “great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews. But I also take refuge in you. You are also made righteous by your faithfulness – and your faith is likewise fortified in your adversity. These are not stories of suffering as much as they are testimonies of faithfulness. We are not deserted by God on our cross. We learn here that we, like many of our fathers underwent the same suffering.  The ancients believed in promises pointing to Christ, and their faith is completed in the Church’s participation in Christ’s redemptive work. So the world was not worthy of them, and it is no less worthy of you Hebrews 11:39-40.

My friends, for those of  you who suffer, my prayers are for  blessings! But should we suffer, and we all will at some point,  let us be sustained by our faith in God. I know it sounds weird, but know that our suffering brings the sweet fragrance of faithfulness to others. It is in faith that we live according to the gospel, undertaking by grace all the promises of the cross and the fulfillment of the law in Jesus Christ.

Some crazy and not so crazy people view persecuted saints like Charlie Kirk as unfit for society or the earth itself. But Calvin concluded from this passage that the righteous are a source of blessing to the world. Charlie vwas just that. The rejection or removal of the faithful is actually a judgment upon the wicked world, which “cannot tolerate holiness.” Calvin says, when godly people are taken away, “it signals impending evil or calamity — because the world proves itself unworthy of their companionship and will perish without them.” I’m not sure this is always  the case  but it’s worth reflection.

Overall, I see these verses as encouragement for Christians (facing trials and persecution) that faith is not only about earthly success or miraculous deliverances but often shines brightest in patient endurance of suffering for the sake of a greater, heavenly reward. So I thank all who believe for your steadfast faithfulness. If you have time read Hebrews 11, I promise  it will speak to you if you do.