Even the Birds and Mice Can Hear …… and Tell
I am listening to the book In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park, who escaped the rigid, slave-like life in North Korea to get to China. Eventually (and there is much involved in that “eventually”), she made it to the USA via South Korea. The lives of her mother, sister, father, and she were lived on the knife?s edge between death and freedom in a harrowing series of escapades that (in my view) could only have been ordained by God for them to escape and live in freedom. I know many like her family do not make it out.
She and others in North Korea lived under the weight of secrecy and silence not telling anyone about atrocities they witnessed while in North Korea. As Yeonmi’s mother would tell her as she left for school most days, “Yeonmi, watch what you say because you know that even the ‘birds and mice hear and can tell the authorities if you speak any words against our Dear Leader (Kim Jung Un)’. That level of instilled fear is hard to imagine in our western world of free speech and the freedom to choose our own path.
A familiar, old theme rose up in my mind, and I had not considered it for most of my adult life. As a very young man, perhaps even as a teen, I wondered how God would review our lives at any of the judgments we may face – either the Great White Throne judgment revealing those who are saved and bound for heaven, or the “bema seat” judgment for rewards based on what we as believers did with our lives while we were on earth…our words, our thoughts, our actions and reactions, our motives, and our feelings. This article is not a doctrinal statement about judgment, but more of a question about how God might record our lives.
The Bible mentions books, some who’ve had “near death experiences” witnessed to their minds being “unlocked” to simply play back everything they’d experienced in life. That’s kinda’ like what I was wondering. What if you and I lived in front of God’s video camera that simply recorded our every action, thought, word, ..etc? In my youth and especially after I came to faith, I decided I wanted to try to live in such a way that, if my guardian angel was somehow recording or journaling my life I would not be embarrassed or ashamed to have my life’s video played back or my life’s biography read aloud.
Of course, my life has not been one that I would want it all revealed, but this much I know: Our Father God knows everything, and I still want to try to live my life to please Him, to honor Jesus, and to give Holy Spirit complete access to my control center. When I mess up and sin, I want to ask for forgiveness immediately of God and others I have hurt. When someone hurts me, I want to come to my Father again with the truth of the pain or frustration and find His loving comfort, then forgive the other person from my heart even if they never know what they did to hurt me.
I know my life video or written biography is not something I will be completely proud of when all is revealed in whatever way God choses; but could we keep in mind the truth that our life is very important to God and to all those we contact? No wonder Jesus told us that the greatest and second greatest commandments are these: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…..and love your neighbor as yourself.” Living this way keeps our full-feature film from have too many R rated parts whether due to Language, Sexual Content, or Violence or living selfishly. Instead we will be known for the love we have for one another. Sounds Biblical to me!