license transfers

I haven't posted in a while, mainly due to the fact that the holidays involved a lot of driving - over 1000 miles in about two weeks time (more on that in another post). I also haven't posted in a while because we're in the throes of busy season here at the Tax & Accounting Business of Thomson Reuters. These days, I am either sitting at my desk on a call - or up and running getting more information.

My work post-holidays involves our cash cow, UltraTax, and making sure that users who are new to the program are happy with their investment. In any case, this liberal arts kid is learning more about the world of tax. This morning, I ended up eavesdropping on a conversation that had nothing to do with everything I've been eating, sleeping, and breathing during my eight hours at work every day...

"We would need his signature to relinquish his rights to the software..."

The conversation took place between one of the Seniors here at work and a user about a software license. When our users purchase our software, "we license individuals and not firms" (a common phrase thrown around the department). The individual who agrees to sign the license agreement is legally bound to the software as its owner. The license transfer takes place when the licensee - or software owner - is no longer with the firm but the software is. The most common reasons for a licensee leaving a firm include retirement, firm splits, and death. If the software remains at the firm without the licensee, a license transfer is necessary in order for the firm to stay current on their software through renewals. In other words, the licensee relinquishes ownership rights and responsibilities to the software and transfers them to someone else over which to preside.

Eavesdropping on that conversation a few feet away made me think about how beginning and living a life founded on Christ is much like a license transfer. Upon agreement to abandon one's life to Christ, the individual relinquishes it in their heart by transferring it to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Of course, the individual is still in charge of natural faculties - but they have surrendered the desires of their hearts and their lives to something greater than themselves; to One familiar with surrender, who willingly laid down His own sinless life to take away the sins of the world.

Often I encounter people in this life who state that of course they would go to heaven because they are a good person, they go to church on Sundays, they believe in God...but often "Western Christianity", and those who commit to it verbally, is soured unfortunately by the lack of demonstration of a life abandonned to Christ. Inevitably, Christians are not perfect - but when I think about those who say but don't live, it makes me wonder if they have truly engaged in a license transfer: resolving in ones heart to sign over one's life in order to "take hold of the life that is truly life" in Christ (1 Timothy 6:19).

If you do not share in my beliefs, please do not interpret this as something I would try to force upon you. Why would anyone want to relinquish the rights to their own life to the lordship of some amorphous entity? I would venture to suggest that it would be signing off from the futilty and purposelessness of life in order to sign onto something greater - life and love everlasting. This is something that I am learning about everyday, and it's difficult to describe without getting emotional/technical/verbose.

Here's the license transfer concept in a sentence: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." - John 3:16

No more words - I hope you can experience a license transfer for yourself.