Truly Live

Braveheart starring Mel Gibson is a great film.

I had a brilliant night just laying on the couch watching this three hour epic unfold before my eyes.

Towards the end of the film, the part where just before William Wallace is due to be hung, drawn, and beheaded, he is sitting chained up in a jail where he receives a visit from the future queen of England who quite frankly fancies him. She pleads with him to pledge allegiance to Edward Long-shanks, the King of England, so that his death sentence may be put off or even overturned.

William Wallace says a very remarkable thing.

He speaks a sentence that caught my attention. A few words that really inspired me as I watched the screen that night.

He said this.

All men will die, but few men truly live.

As I lay on the couch I reflected on my life so far. I especially reflected on my Salvation Army Officership so far.

Have I truly lived?

Well there have been moments when I have felt kind of dead. There have also been moments when I have truly lived.

I have experienced failure, I have experienced successes.

But as I lay on the couch I suddenly sat upright.

Inspiration lifted me up from my lazy prone position.

It dawned on me that one thing is for certain. I will die one day physically. I don't know when, I don't know the day or the hour. No point even thinking about that! It's guaranteed so it's not really worth thinking about.

It also fell on my spirit that whatever has happened so far in my life that I can't actually do much about the past either. What's gone has gone. Good and bad.

But I want to truly live.

Few men truly live says William Wallace in the film Braveheart.

As I sat bolt upright on the couch that was my pledge to God.

I want to truly live.

My mind went back to a moment in my life that was pivotal in my shaping.

It was a moment.

Only a moment literally.

It was nevertheless a moment, a few minutes that brought restoration and healing and the platform from which to march forward in life.

It was when my father was dying. In fact it was the day he died. I went to see him and spent five minutes alone with him. He hadn't been the best of fathers. We hadn't really had a lot to do with each other for about fifteen years. He had left the family home years before and married another woman. He had hurt me and my family badly. This had left me bitter and angry with him.

This bitterness and anger is not great to have hanging around your life.

It is immobilising and quite frankly prevents you from truly living.

And that was the case for a large part of my life. Whether I knew it or not was really irrelevant.

But in that moment, when I had that five minutes alone with him, I looked at a frail man ravaged with cancer. I took his hand and the anger, the bitterness, the shame, the disappointment, just kind of left. It was almost as if they just walked away from me in that room. I looked into my dads opened eyes, whether he could see or not, whether he could hear or not, I really will never know. But I whispered the words, I forgive you, I love you. That was it, those were the words I used. These were the words that I had found it almost impossible to say when he was alive and well.

That was just a couple of years ago now.

As I thought of that moment, I felt that my dad hadn't truly lived and neither had I in terms of that relationship.

I couldn't change the past in that moment.

But I could certainly change the future.

I new that in that moment of forgiveness and healing came life.

A new platform from which to take my life forward. At that point in my life I was sick of the pain of that, I was also sick of the irrelevant stuff that was going on in my life, and in my ministry.

You know stuff that's not important or relevant, helpful, or life giving?

I remember thinking then that I wanted to do things that count. I want to count for goodness sake. I want my life to make a difference to other people.

That thinking resurfaced on that couch that night while watching Braveheart.

All men will die, but few men truly live.

And I knew for sure right then and there that the only way to truly live is to truly live for Christ.

2 Corinthians 5: 15 says, "And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again."

The truth of this really made my heart come alive.

William Wallace lived to bring freedom to the Scots. And he was dangerous individual.

Jesus lived and died, and rose again, to bring freedom for the whole of mankind.

Not living for ourselves but living for Christ means we have a cause, we have a purpose, we have a mission.

To bring freedom to the captives

That makes us dangerous people, in a good way, in kingdom terms.

So today it would be good to be challenged by God.

Who are we living for?

Are we living for ourselves? Are we measuring life in personal gains and success, in appearance? in finance? in possessions? In promotion? in fame in personal glory? In status? in position? in standing?

Do you know what? I reckon if that is the case, then you step out of that game.

It's just, well I hope you don't mind me saying, rubbish.

Are we living with unforgiveness and a lack of mercy towards others, especially those who have really inflicted hurt on us?

Sort it guys?

I know it's not easy I've been there, but listen, all men die that's guaranteed. Do you really want to get to that moment and you haven't really lived?

Live to fight for a cause.

It makes life worth living. The cause of Jesus to save the world from total spiritual destruction is cause enough.

And in Christ we will truly live.

So today guys choose life.

Choose to truly live.

Are you tired of stuff that has been going on way too long. Those relationships, those issues, those fights?
Drop the battle guys.

Because, all men die, but few men will truly live.

For me, I want to truly live.