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“…or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment. Would you capture it or let it slip?”

Yeah…it’s a line from a popular secular rap song and, therefore, potentially inappropriate to post on a Christian Missionary blogsite, especially as it’s paired with a Bible verse.  But, it’s what came to mind when I sat down to write this blog; not as much in terms of “seiz[ing] everything you ever wanted,” but very much in relation to letting that “one shot” slip.  So, it’s what you get. 🙂

On Sunday, I woke up with no desire to be around people and a strong desire to just “be” with the Lord. So much so that, fifteen minutes before church was to start, I was not going. Ten minutes before it was supposed to start, however, Christina Palmer a -squadmate and current roommate – made a passing comment in response to someone else’s question about church attendance. 

“It’s important that we all show up, you know. It’s a respect thing, if nothing else.”

Dang. 

…five minutes later, I was on my way to church (church is held in an outdoor pavilion on the KIM campus where our ministry is this month).

Sitting in Sunday School, I quickly realized that I needed to be there. The lesson was on the faithfulness of God and the forgetfulness of the Israelite people. Ben-Hard, one of the locals here who works with the ministry, was speaking. He talked about the obstinacy of the Israelites in light of the truth that if the Lord had not helped them through various trials, they would have failed. He pointed out that, though they forgot it, the Lord’s faithfulness was ever lasting. The Israelites would cry out for the Lord to deliver them from something, He would, they would praise Him and then, eventually, would forget that He’d delivered them and begin to complain about where they were, the issues they were facing or other such things. Their focus was on the problems of the day, not the faithfulness and nature of their God. And then, to make it personal, he asked this one, simple question: 

where’s your focus? 

Following Sunday School, everyone came back together and waited for Pastor Larry to give the weekly sermon. And, again, I realized that this sermon, on this day, in this country was what I needed to be listening to. He began the message with this question: 
If this were your last year of life, how would you say you’d passed it? 
 
Based on the parable of the talents, found in Matthew 25, he drew a parallel between this one life that the Lord entrusts to us and the one talent that the Master gave to his servants. Two of the servants invested the portion allotted to them while the third buried his portion in the ground. Pastor Larry suggested that man does one of three things with the “talent” given to us. Some people waste it, burying their life in the ground until it’s asked for again. Other people spend it. And others invest their talent, bringing forth more fruit for His Kingdom than what was entrusted to them.
 
The pastor argued that most people fall in the “spending” category, living life for themselves – making sure they are happy, provided for and healthy. I pictured a statistical bell curve, where the majority lies in the middle, not on the ends.  I also thought of the passage in Revelation that talks about those who are lukewarm being spit from Jesus’ mouth. In chapter three, verse 17, the Bible says “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” And two verses before that, Jesus says, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!” Plainly, when applied to this lesson, the Lord would rather us waste or invest our lives, not simply spend them. Obviously, investing what He’s given to us is the ultimate joy of His heart. Back in Matthew, chapter 10, Jesus says that “whoever finds his life will lose it…whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” and “anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” 

 

As I sit on this side of Sunday, I am encouraged. The conviction of my heart in that one comment from Christina moved me into a place of slight rebuke  and discipline from the Father. Out of the two messages, I realized that I have been focused a little too much on the “problems” of each day, instead of on the faithfulness and nature of my God and that my life has been spent more than it has been invested. I praise Father for showing me these faults and, therefore, giving me the opportunity to change it, allowing me to earn the words spoken by the Master to his servants:

“Well done, good and faithful servant!”