I ponder long, racking my brain for what words I might pen to this one-line statement. How do I summarize a life? We spend our lives with words – speaking who we are out loud to others, but also the conversations in the deep inner parts. Those words that bring worry or regret, rejoicing or peace. We turn words over, repeating them. They have the power to encite, to stirr up anger and wrath or to calm – a peaceful hymn murmered when things are turning sour and you just have to hold. on. to Him.
But these words I search for must be different – not words of conversation, that sometime lose their meaning. They must define, sharpen and prod. John Piper writes, “But whatever you do, find the God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated passion of your life, and find your way to say it and live for it and die for it.”
I want that. I want to define what is in my heart – this quest to share His story, the grace-dripping blood He shed for you and for me, this deep desire that my life count for something great. And it isn’t legalism to want to accomplish something for Christ, it is being a disciple – a student of Christ, whose life was used for something great. He didn’t come to show us how to live a perfect life! We don’t have to waste this life trying to “figure out how to get it right”. We embrace the fullest realization of our purpose when we let go of getting it right – all attempts to structure our lives into what others think (and let’s face it, we bought the lie too) is the good ‘Christian’ way to live. We abandon it all and walk after Him, with Him leading the way. We awaken each morning to His call, and with gratitude, accept each moment as a gift of His grace, used for His eternal glory. And there we find our eternal significance.
So I turn words over in my mind and pictures flash in my head and I try to find a way to shape the call in my heart into a solitary sentence. A sentence which adds clarity and objective so that in the end I may say like the God-man on the cross……. “It is finished”.
What is your God-centered, Christ-exalting, Bible-saturated passion?
