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CHRIST IS OUR LIFE
by Dick Smith

In his book, The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker writes that Otto Rank, psychotherapist and student of Sigmund Freud, once asserted: “Man is a theological being, not a biological being.” The contemporary age asserts that man is only a biological being which feels and functions physically, stripping from him any confidence in spiritual thinking. Through the media, organizations, corporations, political parties, and other groups of the age, man is expected to embrace the perceptions that that respective group provides for him. The result is the polarization of society into ideological camps with little or no thinking about WHY they believe what they believe.

With his confidence in himself as a spiritual thinker torn from him, man is left to be a “consumer.” For many, freedom is understood as the freedom of choice. It is the freedom to choose which item to buy among the myriad of choices in the market place. In his delusion that he is a “free” person, man surrounds himself with distractions so that he can avoid having to face his empty condition. Denial has been so incorporated into culture that one can move seamlessly from birth to death without ever having to encounter himself or his condition. Avoidance is the unspoken theme for life.

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Henrik Ibsen wrote “Per Gynt” describing the empty life that ensues when one avoids himself. Paul exposes the falseness of it all by writing, “we are convinced that one died for all therefore ALL HAVE DIED.” We’re all dead (2 Cor 5:14-17). The Law of God kills us (2 Cor 3:6). Our new life is the babe of Bethlehem living in you and me. “And we all with unveiled faces reflecting as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being changed into His (Christ’s) image from one degree of glory to another! And this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit! (2 Cor 3:17).

It is always a thrill to see each of you as we all grow older and time passes. For in that passage of time God has continued his work of changing you and us more and more into the image of his Son. This is truly one of the greatest gifts of all.

A Blessed CHRISTmas to you one and all. And as I say on our answering machine: “As one dead person to another, ‘have a GREAT LIFE, because CHRIST IS OUR LIFE!’”

Rev. Dick Smith, serves Heart River Lutheran Church, bringing Christ to youth at the Youth Correctional Center in Mandan, North Dakota. You may write directly to Rev. Smith at dicksmith9@bis.midco.net

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