March 9, 2013

[bloom where you are planted]

Sometimes I get to thinking..

So I have this one shot, one opportunity (..you only wish I was about to bust out Eminem style on you) to live "well." We have an average life expectancy of 80 or something years, and I'm not even promised that. In these 80 years, I desire to live with meaning, with purpose. I hope to live up to the expectations of that awful James Dean quote: "Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today." I want to be remembered for the way that I loved the Lord, that I served Him, that I gave Him glory.

Pause.

Remember how I'm working that 8:00 to 5:00 job Monday through Friday? Remember how I get so wrapped up in my daily routine that I forget about this whole 'one opportunity to live' concept? Remember that February month that seemed to fly by without me even recognizing it for what it could be? Am I glorying the Lord through my corporate lifestyle? Is he satisfied in my daily routine? Am I really making the most of my life?
 
Yes.

From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the set times for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.
-Acts 17:26-28
 
Isn't it comforting to know that we are for a reason? God predetermined the set times and exact places where we should live in order that we may reach out and find Him, the Creator of the entire universe. That job you are working.. I believe God strategically placed you in it to get to know Him more. That daily routine that has you frazzled.. God's going to use it for His greater purposes.

What I'm trying to say is that it doesn't matter that we may not feel like we are living to the best of our abilities.. if we are 'living as if we will die today.' Whether we can see it or not, God is constantly directing our footsteps.. leading us to his wide open arms.. the ultimate satisfaction. All we're asked to do in return is to abide.

abide: continue without fading or being lost.

Not feelin' it?

God is exalted in his power.
Who is a teacher like him?
Who has prescribed his ways for him,
or said to him, ‘You have done wrong’?
Remember to extol his work,
which men have praised in song.
All mankind has seen it;
men gaze on it from afar.
How great is God—beyond our understanding!
The number of his years is past finding out.
“He draws up the drops of water,
which distill as rain to the streams;
the clouds pour down their moisture
and abundant showers fall on mankind.
Who can understand how he spreads out the clouds,
how he thunders from his pavilion?
See how he scatters his lightning about him,
bathing the depths of the sea.
This is the way he governs the nations
and provides food in abundance.
He fills his hands with lightning
and commands it to strike its mark.
His thunder announces the coming storm;
even the cattle make known its approach.
 -Job 36:22-33

You can trust Him.