WE ARE BEGGARS ALL

I have had some amazing conversations this week.
From family and friends,
from customers and acquaintances,
I have heard the same message:
“We do not want to waste our lives.”

Statements like this ring so true in my heart, that I get embarrassed, because I do not have the words to respond. Christians like to say that things really resonate with them, well, the aforementioned statement doesn’t just resonate with me… it is me.

I want my life to count.


Joy and I have been on a journey searching for our place to serve in the world… and for all the “opportunities,” we still haven’t figured out where we ought to be. By ought to, I mean (courtesy of a kick in the teeth from BFW) the place where our greatest desire and the world’s greatest need meet. How can we set our course to maximize the things we love to help the most people?

My heart is first and foremost for Yahweh.

When I was growing up we’d say “we wanted to know him,” now I know I want to delight in him. I want to be a peace bringer, a need meet-er, and a steadfast soul just as my savior was… and is. I want to live a life that my daughter can see and want to have. I want to be the husband that inspires his wife to be so much more than she ever dreamed. Yet none of this is possible without the joys, promises, and workings of the God of the Bible.

I am so easily crush, diluted, and distracted.

And then one amazing person after another begins to renew me (Joy, Billy, Joe, Brianna, Erin, Tim, Sam, Corey, Jared Intelli, Minott, Jimmy, Rob, Ian, Zachary, Duke, and this dude named Dane). They lift my head, give me guidance , and talk about “nothing; everything” (movie quote). I cannot… will not be dissuaded from praising my God for using them to focus me.

I am reminded of another life and a sermon that was more motivating to me than any other:

“So I look out on you as sons and daughters and I plead with you as a father - perhaps the father you never had. Or the father who never had a vision for you like I have for you, and God has for you. Or the father who HAS a vision for you, but its all about money and status. I look out on you as sons and daughters and I plead with you: Want your lives to count for something great and for eternity. Want this. Don't coast through life without a passion…

Isaiah 26:8 - "Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts." Here is not just a body but a soul. Here is not just a soul, but a soul with a passion and a desire. Here is not just a desire for being liked or for softball and shells, here is a desire for something infinitely great, and infinitely beautiful, and infinitely valuable and infinitely satisfying - The name and the glory of God - "Your name and your renown are the desire of our souls."

This is what I live to know and long to experience. The mission statement of my life and the church I serve: "We exist - I exist - to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples."
You don't have to say it like I say it…

….But whatever you do, find your passion and find your way to say it and live for it and die for it. And you will make a difference that lasts. You will be like the apostle Paul. Nobody had a more single minded vision for his life than Paul did. He could say it in different ways.

Acts 20:24: "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."
One thing mattered: Finish my course, run my race.

Philippians 3:7-8: "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ." John Piper