#8 How Should I Act?
 

The Hidden Source
 

You're life is now hidden with Christ in God.
(Colossians 3:3)
 

    There is a secret in your life. This secret is not all the things you'd rather cover up, not all the things you used to get into, but a wondrously good thing that is hidden. It is hidden in God, and it has to do with Christ.
    Have you ever met anybody whose life was hidden with Dow Jones in Wall Street? He can't wait to grab the paper in the morning, and you know exactly which page he'll turn to first. He'll do this even though he already knows how the Dow Jones did, because he listened to the news the night before.
    Or take some teenagers. Without a constant fix of Tina Turner or the latest Michael Jackson, they can't keep going. Their life is hidden with MTV.
    In a similar way, Paul says Christians are caught up in who Christ is, what he says, and what he has promised. The secret, the source, and the content of their life are found in him. It's hidden, but it's where they belong. Christians died a radical termination of the old life. Their life is hidden with Christ in God.
    How does that change things?
    When your life is hidden with Christ in God, your life's center is Christ. The core of your existence is hidden - and you can prove it.
  "My life was dependent on my business, then I lost my business. I walked away from it.@
  "My life was dependent on my family. Then my family let me down.@
  "I had all the money I needed, and I could buy whatever I wanted. But I'm afraid I made some bad investments, and it's all gone.@
  The remarkable thing is that some who have gone through similar experiences seem to keep on an even keel. You can chop away at their life - this goes, that goes - you keep chopping away, and you wonder, When on earth will we get them?
    The answer is, you won't. You can touch all the earthly things, legitimate and illegitimate, but you can never destroy the center of their life for one simple reason: The center of their life is Christ.
    That's why you'll find some people rotting in a cell in the Eastern bloc, without friends, without family, without church, without Bible, without hymn book, and you can't break their spirit. Their life is hidden with Christ in God.
    Paul tells us to set our minds on things above, because the center of your life is locked up in Christ, and he is double-wrapped in God. Enemies can get you at any other point, but they can't touch you there.
    Think of the worst thing that could happen to you. It's not difficult for any of us. We've all got our pet phobias. What if it happened?
    If you= re a Christian, you would be rocked, shaken, grief-stricken - but fundamentally you would be unmoved. Your life is hidden with Christ in God, and you have your mind set on him. People who get to that point are remarkable and unusual.
    You've heard of people who are so heavenly minded they're no earthly good. Have you met anyone like that? I confess I haven't. Not a one. You see, that's not our problem today.
    Our problem is that we are riddled with people who are so earthly minded they're no heavenly use. Paul is not being impractical when he talks about setting your minds on heaven. He's not unrelated to where life is. He knows you've got to live your life down here, and he doesn't promise God will lift you out of the whole thing.
    What he insists is that the source and the core in the center of your life is found in Christ, not in earthly things. Therefore, whatever you do, don't allow your attention to be diverted from Christ.
    Keep your eyes locked on him, obey what he has said, and you'll never have to worry about becoming so earthly minded you're of no heavenly use. You'll be the kind of person who's highly valued both on earth and in heaven.
    And we can always use a few more of those.
    Where is your life "hidden"?


Father, please help me be so deeply hidden in you that no matter what happens, the core of my being will be unshaken, grounded firmly in you, Amen.
 

~Stuart Briscoe~