From Life to Death
The week of November 8th 2015 was a pretty crazy one for me. Early in the week, I visited a hospital where the latest addition of my family was born! (Uncle Alex x2!) Just a couple of days later I attended a funeral; the father of one of my best friend's had passed away. The very next day I had the honor of standing as a groomsman at the wedding of another very close friend. Crazy week huh?The following Sunday I was doing some reflecting, as it is part of my regular Sunday routine. I was thinking back over the previous week; I immediately felt God call me to write about the experiences I had. It was one of those moments that I had the whole post written in my head. It was a big week because I witnessed 3 of the main highlights of the human life.1. Being born. 2. Getting married. 3. The end of life. (Or moving into eternity with God.)Being part of these 3 events during that week was a huge reminder to me of how short life truly is. We are born one day, we have some big events in the middle, then we die. (Sounds depressing huh? That is not the point of this post, it gets positive, I promise!) The truth is, if we grasp how short our lives are and we make these 'highlights' between life and death honorable before God, our eternity is going to be a beautiful thing.How often have you heard people say "I cannot believe it is almost May!" or "This year has gone by so fast!" Often, not always, this is due to people conforming to the pattern that the world has for them. What I mean by this is that we just go with the flow and keep on looking toward the next big event or the next big release instead of focusing on the day that we are in and having a real time impact on our surroundings. It makes the time feel as if it is passing by very fast.
Related Post: Don't Trust Autopilot
If we end up being people that are unintentional (That's a word, right?) with where are lives are going, we become part of the pattern of the world. The world has a plan, and a way for us to live. The world tells us to look ahead at the next big thing, instead of what we were made for today. Often we are just here going through the motions of life and are not really living. If we desire a life of true value; we need to step out of this pattern that the world has set and follow God's plan.Here are 3 action steps that we can take to make our days effective within God's plan:1. Be differentIf you study the lives of the people in the early church; you will notice that they lived extraordinary lives. Acts 5:13 tells us that no one dared join the disciples, even though they were highly regarded by the people. We should be able to say the same about our walk with God! - Are you noticeably different from those around you?2. Be intentionalTake time to know where you are going, and why you are going there, don't just go with the flow every day. Proverbs 21:5 says "The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty." - Are you being intentional with the time that you have been given?3. Be full of love and graceMost importantly, focus on your relationship with God and falling more and more in love with Him so that it transcends into the way that you love others. Are you so in love with God that it overflows into the way that you love and treat others?If we decide to be different than the rest of the world by intentionally focusing on where God wants us to go while loving others along the way, what we do between the time of life and death will greatly impact and change this world. Don't let life pass you by, commit to making every day effective for God!