Think of the most exciting, fulfilling day of your life. Now think about a heart-wrenching and trying day. These are the extremes. It appears to me that we spend most of our time somewhere in between these two edges of life.
We tend to experience life through our emotions. We measure ourselves by where our days fit on this continuum of extremes. We even greet each other with an assessment of the day. “How’s it going today?” or “How are you today?”
We live in the world of emotions, yet we know from scripture that the value of being alive today is not based on how we happen to feel about it. So what is the value of a day? What is that value based on? If I ask myself, as a Christian; “What do I gain from being alive today?” What is the answer? Paul writes in Philippians 1:21; “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” In other words, he says that it’s better to be away from this world and with our Savior.
What exactly does this world offer us to want to remain here? What do I personally gain from another day on this earth? Is it an opportunity to know Christ better? Some churches give their mission as “To know him and make him known.” That has value. But if the value of my being alive is simply an opportunity to know God better, cannot I know him best by being with him in heaven?
So what does this world offer us to want to remain here? Is it to achieve something? To build a kingdom, to leave a legacy, to attain something, to posses something? If this is the reason, I ask again, would it not be better to be with Jesus than to remain in this limited, sin-wrecked human form?
Yet there is something very important about being alive on earth today, experiencing life between the extremes. And it is not about gaining personally; it is for God to reflect himself through me to the world around me. It is not to acquire or achieve in this world, but simply to allow him to work through me as he wills.
God chooses to work through imperfect human beings. He does this so that all mankind may see that he is behind it all, and he does it in extraordinary ways. If what I do is not impossible, not extraordinary, how does it reflect that there is a God who works through me to make it happen?
Quite often, the impossible things are not the great things, but rather, the living out of the commonplace moments of our lives. The everyday life of raising families, going to work and engaging with others.
Power to live between the extremes is what makes the world take notice. Living in such a way as to exhibit that we are alive to bring him glory. Looking forward with anticipation as to how he will reveal himself in our day; using us to touch other’s lives. Allowing the ‘riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7, 2:7) to work through us. And doing it in ways that uses our individual uniqueness to connect with people in ways that only we, and God together, can.
Great fleshing out of 2 Cor 4:7. Great word of encouragement to live life to the fullest (only possible as we decrease and He increases).
Posted by: Chad | October 17, 2008 at 04:14 PM