Have you ever thought of your life as a movie? Really, a movie starring YOU. Actually a documentary of all your real priorities throughout life, your actions as well as your private thoughts and ambitions. The real you. Hmmm, I wonder if that sounds more exciting or frightening?
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3 that we should build our lives on a firm foundation. What we say and do is one thing. But the foundation reflects what we really believe. It is the footprint of our lives. Verse 13 says that there will be a Day when it will all be brought to light and revealed with fire and the fire will test the quality of our work, our life.
But what does get burnt up? I don’t think it is the bad stuff we do because that was already paid for by Christ on the cross. But rather it will be all our non eternal works…the ways we wasted our lives with complaining, nagging, worrying, selfish ambition, meaningless hobbies, etc. I think this is the wood, hay and straw of our lives that “the Day will bring to light.”
The image that comes to mind is a somber one of the wasted moments I spent focusing on this world being thrown on a big screen…light that reveals and destroys darkness. And it will be burnt up. We will all pass through a fire and something will be burnt up. I hope mine is a small “poof” and not a large bonfire that causes others to say, “there goes Bryan!”
The good news is that you and I can CHOOSE each day how our life is built and what will be revealed in the end.
1 Corinthians 3:10-17
10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames. 16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.