Some of you who read the title of this post may know what the first set of initials means. Others may not. For those who don't, YOLO is a fairly new acronym that stands for, "You only live once." It has become the byline for explaning why you do some of the things you do. For example, someone may go skydiving, and caption it, "YOLO!" Others may drive a speeding car down a windy mountain road at high speeds with the same caption. In short, it can be used as a tagline to explain why you may do something risky, or even something that is just plain dumb.
After all, if you only live once, you might as well try to make the most out of it, right? And if you happen to go out in a blaze of glory, well, at least you went out doing something you loved, or something you wanted to. Believe me, there is a lot of that kind of thinking out there today. It becomes the reason for not saving money, for doing careless things, as well as those bucket list kind of things.
But for those of us who approach the world from a biblical point of view, we also recognize that it is not, in fact, "YOLO." Yes, God only gives us one life to live in this world, where we inhabit a body created by Him that nonetheless also has the taint of sin attached. However, God also speaks about a new life, one which has its beginnings in us at baptism, and which comes to its full realization in the resurrection of the dead and when we are brought into the eternal kingdom, where death no longer intrudes.
In other words, YOLF! Only, my acronym here is "You only live forever!" Sure, that may mean that we can take calculated risks for God as we live our lives in this world, knowing that we have something even better in store ahead of us. We don't treat this life carelessly; after all, it is still God's gift to us. But we also remember that we have something better in store for us.
Here's the thing about YOLO. The center of YOLO is the self. YOU do what YOU want because it's YOUR life to do with what YOU want. Do you see the center of that more clearly now? It becomes fully focused on YOU, the self. And for those of us who approach this world from a biblical perspective, we know that's not the one God calls for.
Our lives are lived to the glory of God's grace, to honor the name of Jesus, to following the leading and prompting of the Spirit that God has put in us at our baptism. That life is lived in honor of God, in following His will and design for life. And we find that the extention of that is a life lived in love for our neighbor.
In other words, our lives find their fulfillment, not in doing whatever we can to get the most out of this life, but in doing what we can to see that others get the most out of this life. And, as those others do the same thing, they serve us in seeing that we get the most out of this life. And then, we remember that we get to do this perfectly with God forever when the new life fully comes! Wow! That's an incredible thought to consider. And I don't know about you, but it makes me want to risk for God, not just to please myself more.
After all, if you only live once, you might as well try to make the most out of it, right? And if you happen to go out in a blaze of glory, well, at least you went out doing something you loved, or something you wanted to. Believe me, there is a lot of that kind of thinking out there today. It becomes the reason for not saving money, for doing careless things, as well as those bucket list kind of things.
But for those of us who approach the world from a biblical point of view, we also recognize that it is not, in fact, "YOLO." Yes, God only gives us one life to live in this world, where we inhabit a body created by Him that nonetheless also has the taint of sin attached. However, God also speaks about a new life, one which has its beginnings in us at baptism, and which comes to its full realization in the resurrection of the dead and when we are brought into the eternal kingdom, where death no longer intrudes.
In other words, YOLF! Only, my acronym here is "You only live forever!" Sure, that may mean that we can take calculated risks for God as we live our lives in this world, knowing that we have something even better in store ahead of us. We don't treat this life carelessly; after all, it is still God's gift to us. But we also remember that we have something better in store for us.
Here's the thing about YOLO. The center of YOLO is the self. YOU do what YOU want because it's YOUR life to do with what YOU want. Do you see the center of that more clearly now? It becomes fully focused on YOU, the self. And for those of us who approach this world from a biblical perspective, we know that's not the one God calls for.
Our lives are lived to the glory of God's grace, to honor the name of Jesus, to following the leading and prompting of the Spirit that God has put in us at our baptism. That life is lived in honor of God, in following His will and design for life. And we find that the extention of that is a life lived in love for our neighbor.
In other words, our lives find their fulfillment, not in doing whatever we can to get the most out of this life, but in doing what we can to see that others get the most out of this life. And, as those others do the same thing, they serve us in seeing that we get the most out of this life. And then, we remember that we get to do this perfectly with God forever when the new life fully comes! Wow! That's an incredible thought to consider. And I don't know about you, but it makes me want to risk for God, not just to please myself more.
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