Simple Gifts

I've been thinking a lot about my life and what it means to be me. That sounds like a weird concept but maybe I can explain. Taking an introspective approach on life in general makes one wonder what's really important. I mean really, what's important to me? Obviously, God is the most important thing in my life, followed immediately by air, food, and water. Let's be realistic. Then comes family and friends, music, ministry, me time, entertainment, and it starts to go into the realm of less important from there. It's different for everybody but that's what it is for me. Notice that I didn't say anything about job, competition, deadlines, or anything of the like. My reasoning behind this is as follows. Your job is living. Actually, your job, if you are a believer, is living for Christ, and if you are not a believer, your job is to accurately and adequately prove why you are not a believer (and then give your life to Christ once you realize you can't prove Him wrong). Life isn't about making money or being better than anyone else or getting the last word in. Life is about exploration. It's about finding out what your purpose is. It's about finding joy. It's about sharing that joy with everyone you meet. Everyone's entitled to a little joy, right? We recently got to go to Ecuador and see Compassion International operate. We saw how much Compassion does for the children there and we were amazed. What was more amazing was the joy those kids proved to have. When we showed up, they welcomed us into their small, humble homes and made us feel like we were at Grandmama's house. That's just a good feeling. It made me realize that (1) we have a lot more than we think and (2) we aren't as grateful as we should be. I'm not trying to put anyone down, but as Americans, it's tough to see how blessed we are at times. Most of us have food, shelter, clothing, clean water, transportation, proper medical attention, entertainment, etc. Maybe we don't get what we want when we want it, but we get what we need when we need it. For example, my luggage is missing right now (this is not hypothetical, it's really happening) and we left Nashville yesterday morning for 3 weeks. I definitely want my bag. I don't need it. It's just stuff. I still want it, though. That doesn't mean that I'll get it anytime soon, or that I'll ever get it at all. It doesn't matter, though. Even if I never see that bag again (with my souvenirs from Ecuador and enough clothing for 2 weeks) I know God will provide everything I need when I need it, and not before. His time is perfect. Mine's not.
Along the same lines, we got to go to a Special Needs softball game on Saturday. If you've never witnessed people with special needs play sports, you should check it out. It might change your life. These are people who enjoy life. They enjoy being alive. It's amazing to watch a large group of people who are different than you function as a society. It brings me to a revelation. You ready? PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE. Wild, huh? God created us all the same, yet individually different. We get so caught up with gaining stuff and taking care of ourselves that we forget to pay attention to the important things. I mentioned ministry as being important to me. The biggest ingredient in ministry (besides God) is people. If you have nobody to minister to, what's the point? I purposefully didn't mention people as being important because without people, there is no ministry. Life can be a ministry in itself. It's such a joy to see life being lived to its full potential with no worries or reservations. Maybe that's what we should be thinking about with the way we live. No regrets, no hesitation, just pure joy. James said "Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance." (James 1:2-3) There are going to be tough times in your life, but the darkest hour is often just before the break of dawn. Whatever trials you go through, God's gonna make them go away when He decides it's time for them to go away. Most of the time, people with special needs don't worry about anything. They just enjoy the lives they have. I want to be like that. I want to completely enjoy life. It's the only one I have and I don't want to waste it worrying about things like money or luggage or fussing and fighting with one another or anything but praising God. And the fussing and fighting thing...you can just cut that out right now. There's simply no need for that. I'll blog about that more extensively some other time. Back to the point at hand, what do you want to spend your life doing? Would you rather waste time storing up earthly treasures and worrying about stuff that, in the long run, won't matter the slightest bit? Or would you rather completely and totally live? John 10:10 says that Jesus came "so that we might have life and have it to the full." That's what I want. Life to the full. I think we can make that happen.