A Life Lived Well

Today I find myself thinking much about life. I ask myself what does it mean to live well and to love well. What is the meaning of life, and why do I find myself always asking if I am living and loving well. For so many it is the questions of life that we find so hard to answers. Some turn to God, or that which they believe to be god for the answers. Others turn to, people, or nature, or philosophy, while others turn to science, and I could go on and on and on. But it is the questions of life that calls them. Deep down inside we want to know why we are here, what is our purpose and what happens next. And today these same questions invade my mind. I want to know if God is pleased with me? I want to know if I have loved others well and if I am living my life well. I find myself praying to God and asking Him to help me make a difference in the lives of others. To bring a smile to someones face. To make someones life better today. To give me the ability to give of all I have to enhance the lives of another. Today I choose to live my life in a way that pleases God and helps others, so today I feel I have lived well.

Family

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak at my brother-in-laws church and many of my family and extended family were there. It’s funny even though I speak often very rarely do I get a chance to go back home and see my family. Now this was a special occasion it was their third year pastoring in his church but this story is more about my sister Ella his wife. What you may not know is that I'm from a large family of 11 kids and Ella has been my strongest support in my Christian journey since the death of my mom many years ago. Three years ago Ella found out her liver was failing and was placed on a donor waiting list. After numerous treatments and many hospital stays Ella's liver was finally giving up, but during this period of time her love for God, her faith in God and her love for her family is what kept her strength. I remember one late night phone call when she was sharing with me her thoughts and feelings about dying and how she kept saying remember when mom would say "The darkest just before the storm and the hardest fight is just to keep holding on". Or remember when mom used to say "God may not come when you want Him but He's right on time". It was at that moment I realized how dear my family was to me. It was at that moment that the legacy that my mom has left in her children. After speaking my other sister Brenda got up to give closing remarks and during her remarks she turned to me and said “little brother I just want you to know mom would be proud”. Then my nephews comment to the congregation about the impact the family has had on his life and that is why he is in love with Jesus today and I guess what I’m really trying to say is that family matters. You see, it is family that knows you, where you have come from and where you have been. And its family that sticks behind you through the hard times and all life brings. And as I sat there and saw my family and heard the words they were saying to the rest of the congregation, even though there have been many ups and down and difficult times my family has always been and will always be there for me.

From My Heart

As I sit here today, my heart is heavy. Over the past few weeks I have been somewhat sad. It is the kind of sadness that the bible calls sadness of the heart. Even this morning I was reading an article that stated (World hunger reaches the 1 billion people mark.) Then I was reading in the Bible from the book of Revelation chapter 2 and I was taken aback by how God spoke of the people. How God stated that he had things against them. How they had lost their first love. How we as people often turn from good to our own selfishness. I’m sad when I realize that more often than not I worry about myself but care little for what others are going through. I find myself asking why do we have so much. But give so little? Over the past few weeks I have had an overwhelming feeling that we as people are not becoming better but more self-centered. But it is now more than ever people need to have hope, and we that are the most privileged should do all we can to help those who are not. My heart also tells me that people not only need their physically needs met, but also their spiritual needs as well. I can only pray that this sadness in my heart will cause me to do what I can with what I have, for the good of those that God has given me a heart for.

WHY

I often find myself asking the question, Why! Why did that happen , Why did that person die, Why did I not see it coming? Why do good things happen to bad people? Why did God not interven? Why is life so unfair? Yes I ask why all the time and most of the time I don't care about the answers, I want my pain to go away or I want to be justifed in my thinking. You see I think deep down inside, I know what's best in most situations, and I want to make sure God understands that. I want Him to say, your right Don that is what I was thinking. I want things to work out how I plan, and I have little time to deal with a God who does not see things as I do. Well if you really think about it, you would no doubt tell me to wake up. You might say how arrogant of me to think I have all the answers. That I know what's right all the time. And there is the problem, I think I can question the God who made it all. I should tell Him what is best, or how life should be run. But if there is a God who is truly God why would he need anyone to tell how to do things. If your like me the word God carries a certian meaning or connotation to it. It means that He (GOD) is great not me and that Gives Him the right to be in charge. He welcomes my questions, but not my challenges to who He is.

The Journey Of Desire

In his book The Journey of Desire, John Eldredge writes, "We all share the same dilemma- we long for life and we're not sure where to find it. We wonder if we ever do find it, can we make it last?... Our days come to us as riddle, and the answers aren't handed out with our birth certificates. We must journey to find the life we prize. And the guide we have been given is the desire set deep within, the desire we often overlook or mistake for something else or even choose to ignore." Yes the desire for meaning and purpose. We want so bad to know why we are here, why we were created. We desire to find the source of it all. Who or what can help us to know?, that is what we find ourselves constantly asking. But often times questions of the heart require a true search of the soul. They often require a faith that often seems to conflict with what we know. They often require us to trust in the one who created us all. For only the one who created us can fully know us and our purpose. So if your Journey has seemed to have led you to a question of faith and about God. It might be a good time to ask Him if He has the answers you have been looking for. After all He might be the one thing you have desired.

Questions

As I think about my life and this Journey that I have been on, I realize that my life has been series of questions and seeking answers for those questions. As I talk with others I find this pattern is repeated in their life. There are questions about relationships, and money. Questions about the future and the past. Questions about injustice, about pain and suffering. There are questions about fear and about hope. Questions about life and death. And questions about God. And I find that the questions about God brings about the most difficult searching. The most gut reaching introspection. The questions about God brings about intense dialog and debate. But it's the questions about God that will not let me rest, until I have found the answers. I wanted to know if there was a God. And I wanted to know if this God cared for me. I wanted to know how I could find Him and how I could talk to him if He was there. I wanted to know His name and why He created me. I wanted to know what happens to me when I die. I wanted to know if I would be with Him then. Yes so many questions about God and for me I could not rest until I started to get the answers to some of these questions. If your anything like me, you have many of the same questions. Don't just push them aside, for they will return. Seek out God and may I suggest that you start with asking Him to reveal himself to you. In the Bible is a book called John. Go to chapter 20 verse 31 and just read it. I found that was a great place for me to start my search for this God.

Remedy

As I sit here at O’Hare airport in Chicago, listening to David Crowder (song remedy) it suddenly hit me. Jesus came as the Remedy for us. Yes a remedy to make us whole again. Sin has taken an incomprehensible toll on all of us. We have been affected in every area of life, our relationship with God and others, our hope for the future, our physical bodies, and our view of life. And only Jesus can cure all those things. He alone can give us right standing with God, and enough love to care for others with real unselfish love. He can restore our hope in the future because he holds the future in his control. He alone can bring complete healing to broken bodies and minds. And only through His eyes can we see the world as it should be seen. Yes as the song states “He is the one who has saved us, He is the one who forgave us, He is the one who has come and is coming again he is the Remedy“ So if you feel the need to be made whole, I invite you to turn to Him, the Remedy.