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Family When Christ Is King in Our Homes by N.K. Powell
There is a world of difference between making a living and making a life. Each of us is doing one or the other, so we shall contrast the two and see just where we stand.
What do we mean by making a living? To begin with, this is one that that we all must do, but our living does not need to be our life. During the late World War some people felt that the government was being unfair in taking their boys into the service. They felt no one had any right to interfere with their homes; but the thing that was wrong in these cases was the fact that their whole life revolved around the home, because their home was their life, their ideal. When their home was shattered there seemed to be nothing to live for.
But there is another home. I heard a great preacher talking one day. The government had just taken both his boys into the service, and naturally his heart was heavy. But he said, “When my wife and I got married we gave our lives to an ideal—I believe the greatest in the world—the kingdom of God. If our boys come home it will thrill us no end; but if they don’t come back, we must go on, for our life’s work is still before us. We must work for the thing for which we gave our lives.” Now to this man his home was a means to an end, not an end in itself. He had caught a vision, not merely a local vision, not merely a national vision, but a world-wide vision of what his home could contribute to the betterment of humanity at large.
Take his sons, life goes on. Take all his children, life still goes on. Take his home, houses, lands, bank account—life goes on. He has been gripped by an ideal. Job is an example of what I am saying. One came running, saying, “Your daughter, your sons, your cattle—all are gone.” His wife said, “Curse God and die.” Job said, “You speak as a foolish woman speaks. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.” My friend, this is the Christian attitude: “My life, my all, I give to Thee, thou Lamb of God, Who died for me.”
Moses is another example of a man who lost himself in an ideal. He became poor and chose to suffer the afflictions of the people God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Moses saw God, walked and talked with God, was led by God, and it was God who tenderly buried him on the mountainside. The Apostle Paul is another example of a man who lost himself in an ideal. He said, “I am determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified.” He left friends, his position, and followed God. Listen to his testimony shortly before he died: “I am now ready to be offered . . . I have fought a good fight.” I imagine he smiled as he said, “I gave the old devil a great battle, I was more than a match for through Christ my Lord; henceforth there is a crown of righteousness laid up for me, which the righteous Judge shall give me on that day.” Ask Paul, “Did it pay to sell out to an ideal?” “Yes, a thousand times over,” he would say.
To another man business is his ideal, his life. The center of his life is business, making money. When he spends a dollar he expects to get two in return. His whole life revolves around making money. Business is god. Take his business, and you take his god. There is no sin in any man’s being in business. We need more real Christian businessmen. One man recently said, “How could I get into the kingdom of heaven? Constantly reaching, grasping for the almighty dollar. I’m not a Christian; I’m just a professor of religion.”
One more example of making a living instead of a life. Many people think that to live they must be famous, so everything must work toward that end. They shade the truth, live selfishly, use any and all means at hand to accomplish their end. But is making a living an end in itself? Is the family? Is business? Is being famous? If so, then life is simply not worth living. Making a living, my friend, is a means to an end. Unless we are gripped by an ideal we are lost. The person who is supremely happy and contented is the one who is living for ideals bigger than himself.
The family that is dedicated to the kingdom of God, to the proposition of making the world a better place to live in, to making their street a better street to live on, and their town or city a better place, has a home in the truest sense of the word. The businessman who is more interested in making a life than a living will realize that his business is a pulpit to preach to the world the unperishable virtues of honesty and the Golden Rule. He has caught a vision of how the world will be a better world because he is in business. He will realize that he has built a pulpit from which he can preach the Lord Jesus Christ, and men will listen.
The famous people of all ages are those who have lost themselves in ideals. All men who have been gripped by ideals have lost sight of self—Abraham Lincoln, Patrick Henry, the Apostle Paul, Jesus himself. There is a way that seems right, and then there is God’s way. The greatest ideal in the world is the kingdom of God . . . . Once you get hold of this Christ and he gets hold of you, you will never be the same again. He will grip you, hold you steady in the face of storm and stress, loss of loved ones, loss of business, home, friends—yes, you may even lose your life—but, thank God, you will go on living because you were making a life all along instead of a living.
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(Editor’s Note: This article was originally a radio sermon preached by N. K. Powell of the Radio Revival Hour in Butler, PA. Rev. Powell titled it “Making a Living or Making a Life,” but its references to allowing Christ’s kingdom to be central to our homes makes it very appropriate to this issue of Truth Matters. Even though it was preached a number of years ago, it is very contemporary in the issues it addresses: materialism, war, suffering, and sacrifice.) |