Ramblings

I believe that everyone has a defining moment in their life. Well, more several defining moments. These moments could be as simple as a near-death experience, or as complicated as intertwined lives crossing paths. Think about the many things that God puts people through to bring their lives together at some point, and often these paths split… as do the people. Someone once told me that everyone you come into contact with will ultimately shape the person you are and vice versa. Take an examples: 1) There’s this guy in high school that no one talks to. You can choose to either talk to him or not talk to him, and whichever decision you choose will ultimately affect the next decision. If you talk to him you might suffer some popularity issues but you just might save his life (going to the extreme)… if you don’t talk to him then you may be more popular but he might be the most depressed person in the school. And even then, you can choose to learn from your mistake and talk to the next person who may need a friend. Life is an interweaved masterpiece-- kind of makes you just more awestruck at God doesn’t it? I guess one of the things I’m trying to say is I don’t believe that good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. And I’m going to go further than the normal Christian response of Job to follow my point. Take Jesus… He was a good person, not even atheists can argue that Jesus (the man) was not a good person. I was studying the Bible one night and something jumped out at me. Matthew 4:1 states: “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” I wish I could make the word “to” jump out and dance because it’s such an overlooked but operative word. Before Jesus was sent into ministry He did 3 things: 1) got baptized by water, 2) got filled with the Spirit (concurrently with the water baptism by the way), and 3) got prepared in the wilderness. God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, led God, in the form of Jesus, into the wilderness TO be tempted by the devil. God essentially leads Himself into temptation. Or looking at it from a more pure trinity perspective, the Holy Spirit led Jesus of all people into an area and into a season in His life TO be tempted. I can’t stress the word “to” enough. The purpose of the journey, the entire point of going into the wilderness was to be tempted. God leads us into places where questions rise and moments can change us. Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days, and the Bible says that afterward Satan came to Him. Jesus prepared Himself for the temptations and the questions of ministry (and there were a lot of them). I don’t believe that God takes anyone’s life to teach someone something… but I do believe that He can use death to teach someone anything. I’m sure He’s looking down smiling at everything you’ve learned/are learning. You also posed a few questions: “Will I die early? What will people think about me when I die? Will I be pleased with my life? Will I have made a difference or be forgotten?” I know this is kind of obvious, but if you follow God’s direction and path for your life he will make it certain that you will make a difference. Take Matthew 4 again: v. 11 “Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.” I don’t know why it hit me like it did that night or why it never did before, but Jesus didn’t do it all alone. The angels came and ministered (cared, helped, loved on) Jesus. That’s why God puts friends in our lives. Sometimes those friends are the angels that minister to you. One of the biggest differences you can make in life is to be that minister. Allow God to use you. Don’t worry about dying early because you have a time and purpose now. Fulfill God’s will for your life and display an openness to continue… not that you didn’t already know this anyway. People will think as much of you when you die as the impact you had on their lives. And this isn’t necessarily direct impact either. Love, care, talk, and most importantly, spend time on/with people and everything will fall into place. Don’t get too busy for people if you want people to miss you… they can’t miss you if they never spent time with you. Will you be pleased with your life? This all depends on what your expectations and desires are for life. If you set your eyes on things that you want and you strive to achieve your goal… you’re probably going to be very disappointed when you’re dying. The hardest thing to do for most people is surrender their entire lives to God. Being more like Him isn’t just about actions or deeds or words, but it’s about dreams and goals and your entire life. If you’re willing to surrender everything and set your goals to God’s goals, you’ll be the happiest most content person when you die. Now I must say, doing this isn’t “settling” for less. Most Christians view it this way, but God has bigger plans and dreams for us than we do… we must allow God to continually change us and form us in His image; cause only then can we achieve the biggest and best things in life. I think I’ve touched on the making a difference thing… therefore rounding out all your questions. I’m not trying to really answer the questions by the way, just merely adding to the conversation. As the pre-heretical Rob Bell stated: “God has spoken. The rest is just commentary, right?”