THE
TRANSPARENT
CHURCH

“He has also set eternity in their heart”

–Ecclesiastes 3:11

In November 1932 in Australia, a down on his luck, WW I veteran named Arthur Stace was homeless and hopelessly addicted to alcohol. He had been living a life of petty crime and gambling that drove him to the brink of suicide. Having tried everything else, he stumbled into a church one night. That night he heard a message preached on living a life of purpose, a life filled with the power of living for eternity.

The word “eternity” captured Stace’s mind and heart and that night, he met the God of the universe, surrendered his life to Jesus Christ, and walked out a different man. He spent the rest of his life doing what he could to help people find the God who had found him in his desert.

What did he do?

Well, every day for more than 35 years, Stace rose before the sun did, and after reading his Bible and drinking a cup of tea, he’d go out into the streets of Sydney with a piece of chalk and write the word “Eternity”. Over and over and over, thousands of times he wrote the word in the same beautiful script. As the town awoke, they would see the word everywhere: on a sidewalk outside a coffee shop, on the back of a street sign, on a building.

Eternity appeared all over the city. Instead of being irritated, the city took to it and reported feeling strangely encouraged. For the next 25 years, no one knew where it came from. But they finally found him, and when they did, they asked him to continue, and one of his original writings is inside a bell in a government building to this day.

The word eternity had so moved the hearts of the people of Sydney that when it came time to host the 2000 Summer Olympics, and the torch was lit to launch the games, the fireworks were lit, but behind the torch on a bridge, a massive sign flashed to life with the word that millions of people around the world now read: Eternity.

So, let me ask you:

How could you mark the world around you with eternity?

What could you, like Arthur Stace, do tomorrow that would contribute that much more to changing the world?

One of the ways my wife and I try to do this is through loving God’s church. We long for people to live for more than today, for more than just a paycheck or the next sporting event on TV.

Sometimes people aren’t easy- but sometimes we aren’t easy. Sometimes people do strange things, but sometimes we do strange things, too, I suppose. But again, this isn’t about today- it’s about eternity, because I know:

One thing will endure- Jesus’ bride.

One thing He loves- He loves His bride, which is us.

One thing is built for eternity- his church, because he has made us for himself, and He is eternal.

You know, come to think of it, if I were to get a tattoo, it would be this word, the word eternity. 

Not that I’m going to do it. I’m not that into that kind of pain. But, should you want to do so, just say you found some inspiration here.

See, we’ve been made for it, built for it. So go ahead, let it out. Let out a little eternity on the world around you. Let your work ring with it. Let your life, like that bridge in Australia that summer night 14 years ago, shine with it.

Heck, you could even… write it on something.

Just saying.