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Monday, June 22, 2020 - Join Pastor John for a Daily Devotional

June 22, 2020 by Rev. John Hartman

“What ‘This’ Is”

In the movie, “City Slickers,” Billy Crystal plays a New York advertising agent who has a terminal case of the mid-life blues. He is bored with his job, bored with his marriage, bored with his life. On his thirty-ninth birthday he says to a friend, “Have you ever reached the point in life where you say to yourself, ‘This is the best I’m ever going to look, the best I’m ever going to feel, the best I’m ever going to do, -- and it ain’t all that great.’” Soon after, Mitch, Billy Crystal’s character, and a couple of his buddies leave behind their jobs in New York, and for a couple of weeks join a cattle drive from New Mexico to Colorado in their search for whatever makes life worth living.

In one scene, Mitch is riding on his horse alongside Curly, a salty old trail boss, played by Jack Palance. And the two men have a serious discussion on the meaning of life. The trail boss holds up one finger and says, “This is the meaning of life.” And Mitch says, “Your finger is the meaning of life?” The trail boss says. “No. The meaning of life is one thing.” And Mitch says, “Well, what is it?” And the trail boss says, “That is for you to find out.” And, the movie is basically about how each man finds out what “this” is.

In the book of Philippians, the Apostle Paul divulges the secret of life. He tells us what “this” is. Paul writes, “Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

So, what is this one thing we must do? It is to know and serve Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Friends, that is our high privilege as Christians. It comes with a calling, command, and responsibility to do things with our faith that will bring to honor God, and to engage in mission as we bring hope to those who are hurting. And as we do, we get a chance to know the greatest figure to ever walk this earth, -- to hear his voice, to know his heart, and to live as his disciples. As the church at Chestnut Level Presbyterian, may all of us possess “the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ.”