by Joanie Butman
The end of the summer season is bittersweet as residents begin closing up their cottages to return to ‘real’ life. Aside from cooler weather, the surest way to know the end of summer is near is when the wall of shame goes up at the beach gate. It’s a list of names with accounts due. Let me explain. At the entrance to our little community cars have to cross a swath of privately-owned land. The owner installed a toll hut where you have to pay an entrance fee. I call him the Troll because the circumstances remind me of the Three Billy Goats Gruff fairytale.
The employees manning the gate can be sticklers, but plenty of cars just offer them a name and cottage number for entry, racking up quite a bill by the end of the summer. Then it’s up to the home owner to dispute the charges. There have been years when we were hit with a sizeable bill for guests we never hosted. My father was notorious for refusing to pay. The poor adolescent manning the booth would stop him to collect and my dad would be indignant, “I’m not paying to visit my daughter!” Then he’d speed through. He always thought he got away without paying, but they’d just make a note and collect from us in September.
The amounts in question are not going to break anyone’s bank account, but there’s a toll we need to prepare for BEFORE we reach a certain proverbial bridge: when we die, we will have to settle our account before entering Heaven. It would behoove us to seriously consider what our life ledger will reveal. Our sinful nature guarantees that our accounts will be heavily weighted on the debit side – at least mine will. I could never afford to clear the debt I’ve accrued. Gratefully, as a Christian, Jesus pays my tab in full enabling me to spend eternity with Him. His grace alone can balance the scales of justice in my favor.
My confidence in that truth comes from years of learning about Jesus and developing a relationship with Him. The same way we explained to the gatekeepers that we would not be paying for guests we didn’t host, Jesus explains in Matthew 7:21-23,
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
Presenting a lopsided version of our life ledger highlighting our perceived credits could never compensate for our failings. There’s no hiding anything from Jesus. My Dad may think he got away without paying all those years, but I wonder if Jesus will bring it up when He meets him.
In Christ’s upside-down Kingdom, it’s only when we choose to offer Jesus our messy, broken lives that true relationship begins. We were made for eternity. The only thing we will be taking with us into our ‘real’ life is our relationship with Jesus. Choosing to invest in that relationship is always the wise decision.