He is seventy nine and he did the sum properly last winter.
Not in a dark mood. On a good morning, with coffee, looking at the valley.
The answer is that the place will be set on the day he dies. Thirty one years and counting, and whatever the number ends up being, he will not be in the room when anybody sits in that chair.
He has made his peace with most of what that means. He is not frightened of the arithmetic and he is not asking anybody to argue with it.
There is one question he has not been able to put down.
Did it count.
That is the whole thing. Thirty one years of a plate that never had a person behind it. And if that man comes at eighty five, four years after this old man is in the ground, what exactly was being done all that time?
Was he keeping something, or was he just laying a plate?
That is not a morbid question. It is the most practical question an old man can ask, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a comforting one.
Sit on the step. The valley comes up in about twenty minutes and there is coffee.
Who is standing at the door
There is a sentence at the end of Scripture that is usually read as an invitation, and it is, but read who is doing what in it.
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.Revelation 3:20
He is the one standing.
He is the one knocking. It was written to a church that had run out of nearly everything and did not know it, and what He does is stand outside and knock.
Not knock once and move on. Not knock for a reasonable period and conclude that nobody is home. Stand, and knock, which is a posture held over time by somebody who is not going anywhere.
And what is on the far side of the door being opened is a meal. Sup with him, and he with me. The whole thing ends at a table.
You are standing on the same side of a door as Christ Himself, doing the same thing He does. Revelation 3:20 has Him standing and knocking with no time limit stated and a shared meal named as the outcome, and it is the Holy Spirit who kept it addressed to a church with almost nothing left, which means thirty one years of a set place is not an eccentricity, it is an imitation.
The question of whether it counted
Now the actual question, straight, without softening it.
Does a thing kept to the end and never used count for anything?
There is a chapter that answers this, and it answers it about people who died without the thing they were waiting for.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them.Hebrews 11:13
Died. Not having received.
And the chapter does not treat that as the sad footnote to their lives. It treats it as the reason they are in the chapter. The whole list is people who kept something to the end without seeing it, and Scripture calls that faith and puts their names in writing.
If the record only counted things that resolved inside a lifetime, that chapter would be empty.
You are in a category Scripture names and honors by name, and not receiving it is written into the definition rather than counting against it. Hebrews 11:13 says these all died in faith, not having received the promises, and it is the Holy Spirit who kept the not receiving in the sentence rather than editing it out, which means thirty one years with no result to show is on a record that has already been settled.
Nobody is being summoned
Let us be plain, since an old man deserves it plain.
Nobody here is telling him to make a call before it is too late, or to write a letter, or to do anything at all because time is short.
That kind of counsel arrives at older readers constantly and it is pressure wearing the clothes of wisdom.
You are not being instructed to reach anybody, and no decision you have made about that distance is being reopened by your age. Romans 12:18 says if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men, and it writes both limits into one short sentence, and it is the same Spirit who gives wisdom to anybody who asks for it, which means a judgment made carefully years ago still stands.
Something is available on this porch and it is not more time.
You have been doing the thing Christ Himself does at a door, and the record of it does not depend on your being alive when it opens. Revelation 3:20 shows Him standing and knocking with the outcome named as a shared meal, and Hebrews 11:13 honors people who died not having received, and it is the Holy Spirit who kept both, which means the question of whether thirty one years counted has been answered in writing and not by the calendar.
Nobody is asking for a deathbed effort. Nobody is asking you to hurry, to change anything, or to hand somebody a job on the way out.
There is one thing on offer and it happens tonight, the way it has happened for thirty one years.
Declare this over yourself
You speak these standing in a place given to you in Christ rather than earned. The authority is His, delegated, and the outcome and its timing stay His to decide. Say what is true, and leave the rest with Him.
- Arithmetic that says I will not live to see that chair used, you are probably right and you are not the whole account. Revelation 3 says Behold, I stand at the door, and knock, and the Holy Spirit put the standing and the knocking on Christ rather than on the man keeping the door. I am coming back to this table, not because it is settled, but because we are still theirs and His.
- Question of whether thirty one years counted, in the name of Jesus you are answered in writing. The word says these all died in faith, not having received the promises, and it kept the not receiving inside the definition rather than against it, and His Spirit preserved the whole chapter. My name is in that category.
- Lord, You are the one standing at the door and knocking, and You said You would sup with him and he with You. Your word says Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, and Your Spirit is the Comforter. That place is set again tonight and I have stopped needing to be in the room.
Revelation 3:20
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