Who are you? Other than your name, the roles you play in your life probably come to mind.
The roles playing on the individual big screens of our lives might include student, son or daughter, mother or father, husband or wife or a professional role.
One perspective that I have lived long enough to bring into focus is that the roles we play in life are seasonal and temporary. Each role will come to an end if we live long enough.
The Bible quotes God and Jesus as identifying themselves as "I Am," which means that, as our provider, the Father and Son give us the wisdom and resources needed to perform all our roles in life.
This has proved to be true in my life the past 27 years, and in those of countless other believers that I have encountered.
The problem comes when we start to attach our identities to our temporary roles. This is very easy to do while entrenched in the business of everyday activities.
I have observed many people do this, and have been guilty of it myself a time or two.
My grandfather was an executive for Mack Trucks. He loved his job, was very successful and maintained an award-winning standard of excellence that was praised by many.
However, when he retired, he could not switch to his new roles. He died shortly thereafter, leaving apologies to my grandmother for the unfulfilled trips they had planned.
Finishing well is one of my goals, although I do not know many people who have.
Finishing well reaches beyond life's accomplishments. It includes holistic health. A life well-lived doesn't just leave a debt-free estate behind, but enriches the holistic health of generations of lives left behind after death.
Who has accomplished this?
Jesus Christ's life affected everyone he came in contact with, changed history and is still enriching lives more than 20 centuries after his death, burial and resurrection. I have found it is my relationship with him that has been the glue that grounds my spiritual life and keeps me stable and well-adjusted to the roles that come and go in my life.
According to the Bible, all humans are made up of three parts: body, soul and spirit. Roles that we play in life engage our physical body, and our souls, which consist of mind, will, emotions, personality and a conscience.
Our spirits are the part of us that is eternal, and the Bible says it is literally the breath of God that he breathed into Adam when he created him.
Before the fall from paradise, Adam and Eve were spiritually alive and their souls and bodies were enabled through this abundance of spiritual life.
God told them that if they ate of the fruit from the forbidden tree, they would die (spiritually). Satan told them they would not die (physically), and they ate the fruit.
They did not die physically after consuming the forbidden fruit, but their spirits died instantly. Every person since then is born spiritually dead.
Jesus said in John 3:3 that unless people are "born again," they will not see heaven.
Being "born again" means that Christ regenerates one's spirit through his divine nature (the Holy Spirit). Their spirit is then actually born and becomes alive upon repenting of sin and receiving Christ as Lord and savior of one's life.
Our spirits alive with the Holy Spirit, we are equipped to discharge the offices of life. We can produce fruit that others see and enjoy and their lives are enriched with eternal produce.
We also have the glue that keeps us rooted in the eternal love of God. His resources empower us to perform the interim roles in life as they come and go with excellence, without wrongly sinking our identity into a fleeting duty.
This is how to finish well, regardless of how many years we have left to live.
Dianne Brady is a guest columnist, author and owner of a Web-based Christian bookstore, http://heavenlyresources.com.
