What Is Real? What Is Passing?

August 26, 2024

I called on one of the teenagers in worship and asked, “What is Real?” He did not look stunned because, even though we are Presbyterians, talking out loud during worship and sermons is common. However, he did look at me with a perplexed look, and a slight grin, because he was used to me posing curious questions to make him think. I continued, “What is real? Is this chair real?”

He hesitantly nodded, “Yes,” knowing he could see it and touch it. “That makes it real, right?” But he knew I was going to disagree. Then I quoted Genesis 3:19, “By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, until you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” I pointed out that like each of us, that chair would one day return to dust. So, the chair is passing, just like me and you.

I asked another teenager to look at a brand-new truck that we could see in the parking lot. It was a fine truck. “Is that truck real?”

Without hesitation he declared, “Oh yes, that truck is very real, and beautiful!” But, he had to admit that in thirty years it would probably not be a truck any longer. Begrudgingly, he admitted that it must be passing.

So, what is real and what is passing? King Solomon has an insight into what is real and what is passing. He wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:6-7, Remember Him before the silver cord is broken and the golden bowl is crushed, the pitcher by the well is shattered and the wheel at the cistern is crushed; then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. ‘Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher, ‘all is vanity!…’” That which is of God and His Spirit is real. Everything else is passing.

Consider the communion table in your church sanctuary. Is it real? The table is not real, but it symbolizes that which is real. Jesus shared this wisdom, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;” (Matthew 6:19-20).

What about the Bible? I think it symbolizes more than the word of God. It is the word of God, and whether we have it in printed form or not, it is real. So, we may cherish our Bible, or we may burn it, as some have done through the millennia, but we cannot diminish the meaning of what the Bible teaches as God’s word. God’s word is very real.

What about love? Paul writes in Galatians 5:22-23, “ But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” All the fruit of the Spirit is very real.

What about Jesus? You know I am going to say Jesus is real. So does the apostle John, who writes in John 11:25-26, Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Jesus said this to Martha right before raising Lazarus from the dead.

So, what about death? I would stick death in the passing category, if you know and have confessed faith in Jesus Christ. As Jesus said, in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Here are some other areas of our lives that are very important to us. Are they real or passing? Your financial Security? What about prayer? Angels? Your family? Your job?

Have you noticed that the things that are real are so much harder to experience, grow in, and keep at the center of our lives? Those things that are passing are easier to focus on and commit too, yet, they can be so fleeting, and vanish like the wind. Solomon says, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). I think our desire for control in our lives plays a big role. We can control all the things that are passing. We can’t control that which is real.

I challenge you to play the, “What is real and what is passing?” game with someone else. Then pose the question about control issues? Push each other to think about whether you focus on that which is real, or do you take the easy road, and focus on what is passing?