This is a journal of a thought from today's Tony Campolo's Seminar.
We spend most of our lives either feeling guilty for our past or having fear about the future, you know death, we worry about dying. The question to ask ourselves is how often do we spend our life living in the moment that we are in, without guilt from the past or fear of the future.
Tony asked a student in the front row of one of his classes how long he had lived, and the guy responded 25 years or so. Tony said, "No, not how long have you been physically on the earth. When I was in 9th grade I went to the top of the Empire State Building. At first I was running around and just being a kid, but then I walked over to the edge and looked out at the city, I just began to soak it all in. If I live a billion years I would remember that moment because it is part of who I am. It was when I was fully alive. So, I ask you again, how long in your life have you been alive, really alive?" The student responded, "One, maybe two minutes."
How can I/we live a life of being fully alive?
Tony went on to talk about an evangelist, who when he was a child told him that when he got to heaven all of his bad thoughts were going to be put up on a big screen in front of everyone and played. He then mentioned that there was a tape with Nixon telling people to commit the crime of Watergate, but when they went to listen to it there was a long silence where the conversation had been...it had been erased. This, he concluded, is what our experience in heaven will be more like, Christ has erased the tape.
The same is true about our future, Christ has taken care of it.
So, again I ask, how can I/we live a life of being fully alive? Everything is taken care of, we can just be, live in the moment.
This is the theme of my convention...how can I be fully alive?
We spend most of our lives either feeling guilty for our past or having fear about the future, you know death, we worry about dying. The question to ask ourselves is how often do we spend our life living in the moment that we are in, without guilt from the past or fear of the future.
Tony asked a student in the front row of one of his classes how long he had lived, and the guy responded 25 years or so. Tony said, "No, not how long have you been physically on the earth. When I was in 9th grade I went to the top of the Empire State Building. At first I was running around and just being a kid, but then I walked over to the edge and looked out at the city, I just began to soak it all in. If I live a billion years I would remember that moment because it is part of who I am. It was when I was fully alive. So, I ask you again, how long in your life have you been alive, really alive?" The student responded, "One, maybe two minutes."
How can I/we live a life of being fully alive?
Tony went on to talk about an evangelist, who when he was a child told him that when he got to heaven all of his bad thoughts were going to be put up on a big screen in front of everyone and played. He then mentioned that there was a tape with Nixon telling people to commit the crime of Watergate, but when they went to listen to it there was a long silence where the conversation had been...it had been erased. This, he concluded, is what our experience in heaven will be more like, Christ has erased the tape.
The same is true about our future, Christ has taken care of it.
So, again I ask, how can I/we live a life of being fully alive? Everything is taken care of, we can just be, live in the moment.
This is the theme of my convention...how can I be fully alive?
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