"Remember Your Goal"

In a strange kind of way, we should be living our lives as if we are that thief on the cross. Okay, maybe I need to clarify that thought a little. First off, we are to consider ourselves 'crucified with Christ'; which can have several different meanings: to be crucified alone side of Christ; to be crucified on the same cross as Christ; or to consider that Christ was crucified in your place, and that you must assume your life of sin was consumed in His death. I would prefer the later, to the others; mostly because I was not yet alive when Jesus was crucified, and find it hard to picture myself on the cross with Him, or beside Him. However, the thief on the cross did something which we can do now, even if we can not be there with him; which was to realize the fact that Jesus was not guilty of any crime, yet He hung and died there for mine. And then after accepting this fact, we must ask Him to save us; which the thief did by saying, "Lord, remember me when you enter your kingdom". Then, and this is the difficult thing to do, we must live our lives as if we are dead; which means, that there is nothing left of this world which can hold us here. Think about this for just a moment; as the thief on the cross hung there, and watched Jesus die, he had to remember the words that Jesus spoke to him, "Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise", and long for the end of that agonizing day. For the things of the world, were no longer of any use to him, nor could he even imagine them to be so; yet, what he did long for was to be with his Lord in paradise; and all he needed to do was make it to the end. Don't you think he was focused on that goal? "Only a few more hours, and then I'll be there", must have been his victory song. He was held there to that cross by his captors; yet, we must be held to our cross by our Captor, Jesus Christ; and we must consider ourselves dead to the old things, and alive to the new. I know it's a stretch, but, when you really think about it, we really have something in common with that thief on the cross! "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on the things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:1-3)