Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Don't Waste Your Life

Three weeks and two days from now I will be in Tulsa, Oklahoma kicking off my summer of serving the Lord. I know serving the Lord should be something we do all the time, and it is something I try to do all the time (although I often fail miserably.) The difference is that I will be spending all my time this summer serving the Lord. My job will be working at the church, sharing the gospel, caring for people and showing them Christ's love. Life will be centered around serving the church, and ministering to others in the community. I wish I could say that I have already been doing this as much as I can, but unfortunately I have seen myself living for me lately. I have found myself pursuing worldly things and not Godly things. It is so sobering to realize how weak, selfish and full of sin I am.
Ever since I was a child I dreamed of getting married. I have always been someone who wanted to have a husband and a family, and spend my time taking care of them. Other thoughts have crossed my mind like, "maybe I could be a teacher," or, "maybe I could go to school for music," but my desire has always been to be a wife.
The pre-summer reading list for Oklahoma is a book called "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper. This morning I sat reading through the book and I got to a section called "I bless you, mono, for my life." It is definitely a funny title, and as I read the section it was kind of a funny story. John was getting read to start medical school and as the semester started he didn't show up to chapel or any of his classes. His wife, Noel, wondered where he had gone and found him in the health center, lying on his back, diagnosed with mono. He spent three weeks recovering, which meant he had missed the beginning of the semester and there was no catching up. During his time of recovering he listened to many sermons and christian radio stations. All of the sudden his eyes were open and he realized he was lying in the hospital wing for a purpose. He had mono for a purpose that God had planned. He asked his wife what she thought about him going to seminary instead of medical school and she said,"if that is where God is leading you, I'll go with you." He had never regretted his decision to go to seminary and become a pastor.
Suddenly I thought back to the book by Kevin Deyoung "Just Do Something." I have had this dream of getting married, but if that is not what God wants for me I can't sit around and wait for my will to come true. So I am going to do something. I am starting school in the fall. I will get my general ed done and pursue a degree in english so I can become a high school teacher. I want to travel to a foreign country and be a missionary and a teacher.
Pursuing God's will is just doing something and doing it for His glory, not sitting around and waiting for Him to reveal His "big plan."


Suffer?
Yeah, do it for Christ!
You're trying to figure what to do with your life
If you make a lot of money hope you're doing it right
Because the money is God's you better steward it right
And stay focused
You ain't got no ride
Your life ain't wrapped up in what you drive
The clothes you wear, the job you work
The color your skin naw you're a Christian first
People get to living for a job
Make a little money start living for a car
Get 'em a wife a house kids and a dog
Then they retire they're living high on the hog
But guess what they didn't ever really live at all
To live is Christ and that's Paul I recall
To die is gain so for Christ we give it all
He's the treasure you'll never find in a mall
Your money your singleness marriage talent your time
They were loaned to you to show the world that Christ is Divine
That's why it's Christ in my rhymes
That's why it's Christ all the time
See my whole world is built around Him He's the life in my lines
I refused to waste my life


Don't Waste Your Life - Lecrae

2 comments:

  1. awesome post! so many people have telling me about John Piper. I must check him out asap!

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  2. This was very inspiring.
    (I just came across your blog. I'm from Africa. ) :)
    Blessings

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