Flying back from South Carolina last week I had a lot to reflect on. The plane was dark and quiet and I could choose what to think about and spend my time on. I could think about my daughter’s wonderful little family I just visited, I could think about the other one that lives in St. Louis. I could think about business challenges, demands on me, pressures of life or any number of things.
What kept coming to mind on the trip is how I am not much different from the billions of others in the world moving through life. Everyone of us thinking about our little sphere of experiences, our challenges, our issues. An age-old question that many ask themselves is “What makes me different?” or “What makes me special?”. In this mass of humanity, especially over time, does anything make me significant?
People act out in interesting ways when faced with these questions. Some cling to what they have with clenched fists, hoarding their riches until the day they die. Others take everything they have and give it to a cause hoping to buy their immortality. Others use positions of influence to take bold action that will be remembered. I truly believe this is the motivation behind Obama’s actions regarding Cuba today. I believe he is grasping for ways to be significant and remembered.
I think God has a clear answer to this age old question. To him we are not indiscernible in the mass of humanity, we are individual creations. He sent his son into this world to save us from certain eternal separation from him. The hardest part of accepting this truth is accepting our place in the world. For those that accept God’s answer to this question we are strangers in a strange land. We are alien, we are not of this world.
This thought progression is one I have to go through on a regular basis. It is so easy to be lulled into dullness by life. To begin to believe this life is what we have and this life is what we live for. Not at all! This life is preparation, this life shapes us in ways we do not yet fathom.
It is exciting to think about the future, it is easy to want to focus on what is beyond this life. But as one that accepted God’s answer, Jesus, we have a responsibility. Our eternity was bought with a price and it is only right that we honor that price with our gifts, talents and resources. In this honoring of the sacrifice made for us we also find our purpose. “Go, and make disciples” is a call that resonates with me, it always has. I believe it resonates because it is true, it is genuine and in it there is power.
I see that power in the lives I have seen changed by it. Lives that did not have purpose and today are discipling others. Lives that were hopeless now filled with hope. Lives that were falling apart now helping piece others together.
Disciplining and being discipled are so important. I describe this idea often to people I talk to: A healthy individual has people in their lives that mentor them, people that are peers pushing them and people they are mentoring. If you are missing any aspect of this you are missing out. It is another way we are fulfilled as we honor God’s sacrifice for us.
God is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures through all generations.
