Thursday, July 12, 2007

A Purpose Driven Life *

* with partial thanks to Rick Warren

I have been thinking a bit lately about the life we, as Christians, live. We are so lucky to have a future off almost unimaginable beauty waiting for us. We presently live a life that is beyond any value we could place on it. We have been truly blessed.

After the discussion we had at breakfast this morning I am again reminded of the value of this life. This is not something that was just handed to us by God. Yes, it is a gift, and one that we have to reach for, accept and use. But it is one that we have to grow up into. If it were just laid out for us, what would be the value of that gift. As with any present, there has to be a time of anticipation, a time of discovery, a time of learning and a time of experience. There, eventually, also has to be a time of ownership of the gift. In otherwords, we must grow into the experience of the gift.

The greatest part of the gift of this life is the 'purpose' with which we live. Our purpose is to be good God-centered examples for others to see and, hopefully, to follow. The fulfillment of that purpose, the 'intent' with which we live, is to try and persuade men to follow, not us, but Jesus and our Father God. As Ray reminds us frequently, the parable of the soils tells us that the majority of those who are given the information for life will not follow. But that does not mean we stop being examples. It is only through persistence that we can grow into the examples that Christ would have us be.

Through persistence we can grow a "harvest of righteousness".

2 comments:

Jackie said...

Ok .. see your point. But the problem I'm having now is the hermenuetic (sp?) that your observation implies says that we all are where we are. No one is held to a higher standard. While we live life in a Godly fasion, aren't we tasked with teaching it as well . . .to expcet people to learn or 'shake the dust'?

The Johnsons said...

Shouldn't this be a "Purpose Driven Blog?" New Post! New Post! New Post!