Spectacles of eternal value
I went to Rome this week with the other women of Josiah Venture for our annual spring women’s conference. It was really amazing. I saw the Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica, The Sistine Chapel, the ancient ruins of the Roman senate, the gardens and ruins of past palaces, and my favorite: the Coliseum. I walked among the reminders of what used to be, and I was overwhelmed with it all! I have studied ancient Rome and read about how great it was in its day, but to stand amidst the remnants and to almost be able to visualize it….was absolutely incredible.
I am captured by the thought that if Rome could fall…in all its greatness…anything…anyone…could fall. It’s funny how often I get caught up in the struggle to build something I can see and say to other people: “Look what I built!” And I’m not building ANYTHING like Rome! It was glorious!
As I walked among the ruins, I prayed that I would not put any hope in things I might build here on earth that do not have eternal value. I don’t want anyone to see the ruins of my life and say “it was a glorious thing at one time, but it’s gone now!” I want to spend my life focused on the eternal things…and I want to join the legacy of the faithful mentioned in Hebrews. I thought of this as I stood in the Coliseum…a place where thousands of people lost their lives because they wanted to build something of eternal value… And it struck me that the Coliseum, a place of torture, is the one ancient structure that still retains almost its complete form. Wow.
Still, God wanted to show me something more about my own heart as I stood in that place. Andrea, one of the JV ladies who lives in Czech, had invited us to have communion with her while we were in the Coliseum, and as I looked around the place, there were tourists everywhere! I mentioned to one of my teammates that I couldn’t imagine having communion there with people walking all around. The thought in my mind was that I didn’t want to be a “spectacle”. Eventually, I decided to join the group, and Andrea asked us to read from Hebrews 11 and Romans 4. After that, she served us communion, and the moment she started speaking, I began to cry. I suddenly realized that I was in a place where people had suffered for the message of Christ while thousands of people came for the “spectacle”…and there I was, wanting to make sure that I was not a “spectacle”. Whew. The selfishness of my own heart never ceases to amaze me.
I’m thankful for my time in Rome.
