We kickoff our series through the book of Colossians. The theme is Life: More than a Game. The book of Colossians reveals to us the mystery of the real life that God desires to give us. This message opens up the book by looking at four characteristics of a real Christ-centered life:
March Madness has begun. Most college basketball teams are playing in their conference tournaments determining which teams will move on to the national “dance” – The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. College basketball is a big deal…and even bigger deal in March. All of the “hoop”-la to win that big ol’ trophy.
No NCAA Championship team began the season without a vision of how they would win enough regular season games, win the conference championship, and win their way through the national tourney to be crowned champions. No championship is won accidentally; champions win on purpose. No team just shows up to play, tosses the ball around, and plays to “make the best” of each game as it comes. Champions work hard for their championship, and they play a full season with (here comes my word again)…intentionality. From the opening practice until the buzzer of the final game they work hard with a singular goal: win the trophy.
Sadly many believers drift through life without a game plan for a successful spiritual journey. Consider the sense of purpose Paul had in mind when he wrote to the Corinthian church:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. – 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
“So run,” he says. “I do not run aimlessly,” he testifies. “I discipline my body,” he demonstrates. Purpose. Intentionality. Vision.
What is your game plan? What are you doing to win in the important areas of your life? Your spiritual development? Your marriage? Your relationship with your kids? Other important facets of you life? What is the game plan?
Let me encourage you to answer four questions for yourself today.
Ask God to give you honest insight into your own life and ask Him to give you wisdom and strength to make the necessary changes to begin living intentionally in those areas. Run to win. Run with purpose. Run with self-control.
Do you live with intentionality and purpose, or is your life drifting from day to day as handle what comes your way? Choose to live intentionally.
A little confessional blog today, with an invite to join me on this stretch of “the long way home.”
For most of my life, I have prided myself on the ability to “wing it,” “flying by the seat of my pants,” as they say. (OK, enough of the metaphors!) An honest assessment of the last several years of my life, however, reveals that I have begun to overlook too much, waste too much time, forget things I need to remember, and give less than my best efforts at some important things that should get the best of my attention and energy. I have come to the conclusion that I have allowed my life to drift and that I spend more time reacting to what happens around me than proactively charting a course of life stewardship.
The Old Testament sacrificial system placed great emphasis on the quality of the sacrifice being placed on the altar as well as the sincerity of the heart of the one offering it. A genuine worshipper would not bring just any sacrifice to place on the altar. The quality of the sacrifice reflected the depth of the devotion in the heart of that worshiper. I want my life to reflect a sincere heart and a pure sacrifice.
So… I am getting my life in order.
I am committing to live more intentional than ever.
I will live by God’s priorities,
I will master my schedule,
I will take care of my body, soul, and mind.
Giving more attention to the details of life will not come easily for me, and I have no intentions of becoming obsessive-compulsive about life; BUT, with God’s help
I want to order my priorities properly,
I want to invest my time productively, and
I want to live out my days passionately pursuing what really matters for eternity.
More on my quest for intentionality next time. For now, I encourage you to take stock of your life. Are you drifting from day to day, trying to manage what happens? Or do you have a sense of what God wants from you and are you living by His design for your life? Interestingly, knowing that the time of his death was drawing near, Paul had this assessment of his life:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. – 2 Timothy 4:7
Notice the definite articles. He fought not just any good fight, but THE good fight. He finished not just any race, but THE race. He did not just keep faith; he kept THE faith. Intentionality. The things that really mattered. Paul was not reactive, but proactive. He had a sense of what God wanted from him, and he pursued that passionately.
What about you? In what areas of your life are you adrift? In which parts of your life do you need design and order that only God can give?
So teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom. – Psalm 90:12
I want to share with you a few thoughts that captured my heart as I considered my 18,262 days (that’s 50 years plus 12 leap days) on my birthday.
The prominent theme that I have come to grasp over these last 6 weeks or so is that life is not about me, it’s about God and His plan for His creation. If all we ever do is consider our circumstances in light of their bearing on us, we really miss the grandeur of God’s glory as He includes us in His purposes for now and eternity.
A second truth I pondered today is that life is all about the journey… the walk. Enoch lives 365 days. I think that is significant since it is one year for each day of our year. To me, that signifies that he lived a FULL life, and the Bible says about Him that he had a testimony that He walked with God. I’ve experienced a lot of ups and downs in my 18,262 days, but God has walked with me every step of the way, often carrying me. I grow closer to Him because the journey has so many challenging turns. When I started this blog in the summer of last year, I was inspired by Steven Curtis Chapman’s song “The Long Way Home” (video below). That’s what this life is, a journey on the way to eternity.
A final truth I have pondered today is that God is not finished with me yet. They call us 50-somethings “middle aged.” I guess that means I have somewhere around another 18,000 days to go? Whatever. I do know that I have more passion for ministry now than ever. I sense the urgency of our time and I have a longing in my soul to make a difference for Jesus in the days that I have left.
No matter your age, if you have surrendered your life to Jesus and become His follower, life isn’t about you. Let me encourage you to begin to view your days as opportunities for God to include and involve you in HIS plan for HIS creation. Count your days so that your days will count…for HIS GLORY.
Back in August 2007, a Laurens County Georgia sheriff’s deputy pulled to the right side of road and began to make a left U-turn. As he pulled back onto the road toward a 90 degree angle, a motorcyclist traveling in the same direction t-boned the sheriff’s cruiser at such a rate of speed that the impact flipped the car over on its side. The deputy was seriously injured and the motorcyclist was fatally injured.
The motorcyclist’s widow sued the county, the sheriff’s department, the sheriff, and the deputy for what she calls (notice I am quoting here) “the full value of the life of her husband.” What price tag could you put on a man’s life? Well, apparently he was worth a cool $1,000,000 to her.
I lost track of the case and I am not sure of its outcome. I have neither the desire nor responsibility to determine the merits of this case. What intrigues me is placing a monetary value on the life of a human being.
While not addressing the monetary value of one’s earthly existence, Jesus did rhetorically ask about the value of the human soul.
For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:25-26
Who’s to say how much one’s time here on earth is worth, but we can easily determine the value of the human soul. Jesus exchanged His life for our soul. That makes our soul the most valuable commodity known to man.
You are so valuable to God that He gave His Son’s life in exchange for you. Never believe the devil’s lie that you don’t matter or that you are insignificant. You are worth far more than a mil to God. Our lives have been redeemed, let’s rise above the common and ordinary and live as the priceless treasures that we are.
