When people think about not wasting their lives, they tend to think they will be doing heroic acts like going overseas as a missionary, or adopting 5 children out of foster care, or writing multiple books. But what if not wasting your life looks different for you than for other people?
What if your circumstances lead you to never going overseas, or never being able to adopt 5 children? What if you're not a prolific writer? What if you are not a great public speaker?
What if what God is calling you to is simple, seemingly mundane, day to day faithfulness? What if each day looks much like the day before? You kiss your spouse goodbye in the morning, go to work, then come home and do errands, chores, make dinner, daily devotions, then do it all over again? Each week you meet with your small group, you encourage those around you, you delve into the word, and pray, only to do it again next week?
It is easy to fall into the comparison trap and think that because our life doesn't look like someone else's, or because our sacrifices don't look like someone else's, that we are wasting our lives away.
What if not wasting your life, may look like you are actually wasting your life? The daily faithfulness to go to the same job every day, to be faithful to God and His word, to be faithful in loving your children, spouse and friends, may seem unadventurous, boring, wrote even. What if not wasting your life looks a lot more like dying than living?
When we think of not wasting our lives we tend to think our life needs to be anything but boring. We want to be living radically, adventurously, but what if the normal humdrum of life is what this looks like?
What the World Needs
The world needs more committed Fathers, who are willing to work hard to provide for their families, who are reliable, loving, and intentional. It is a painful reality that many children in this generation are growing up without fathers. What this world needs is more godly, radically committed fathers, who are in it for the long haul, to not only provide for the physical needs of children but also for their emotional and spiritual needs.
This world needs more mothers who personify the Gospel to their children, in giving grace, and loving them patiently. This world needs women who are content with where the Lord has them in each season, praising God in infertility, in the toddler years, the teenager years, and the empty nest years. This world needs women who don't crave for insta-fame, and don't live for affirmation from the world around them.
"People need to see that we work our jobs, not as a way to fund our idolatries, but as means of being generous and giving."
The world needs people who will go to their jobs, and do their work as unto the Lord, and not as unto men. People need to see that we work our jobs, not as a way to fund our idolatries, but as means of being generous and giving. Those in our sphere of influence need to see us being faithful to God's word, not forsaking the gathering together on Sunday's as some are in the habit of doing.
People need friends, they need advocates in their lives, they need us be God's hands and feet in their lives. So many people just need a listening ear, and for us to hold up the Gospel before their eyes daily.
Live Quietly
Paul exhorted the Thessalonian church , "to aspire to live quietly," to to work with their hands, and to walk properly before outsiders, (1 Thessalonian 4:11-12). This may look differently for everyone, but we are all to be ambitiously living quiet lives. Lives that are not typically glorified in the movies, but are a quiet, beautiful symphony unto the Lord. Some of the most important jobs are oftentimes thankless jobs that fade into the background, such as being a home school mom, a nurse working the night shift at a hospital, or preaching the gospel in a backwoods church, in a small town.
"The truth is our lives will never be wasted when we are faithfully loving God where we are."
Lose Your Life
What if in order to truly show Christ to this world, our lives will look much like his earthly one, in which he never traveled more than 200 miles from his hometown? He never became rich, or possessed much material worth. What if not wasting our lives, looks like his death on the cross? Jesus told his disciples that in order to follow Him, they would need to take up their cross, deny themselves, and die daily, (Matthew 16:24-26). Dying daily may look like the death of our concept of what we thought our lives should look like. The truth is that we must die daily to ourselves, in order to truly live. Jesus said in Matthew 10:39, "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
"Let us not waste our lives, let us lose our lives to the glory of God."
Jesus lived a simple life and he changed the world. In the world's eyes he was nothing special, but he knew that he was bringing about God's kingdom on earth, and that because of him many would be redeemed. In his quiet faithfulness, he changed everything. He was faithful, he was obedient to what he was called to do, and he left an example for us to follow. The truth is our lives will never be wasted when we are faithfully loving God where we are. Let's show the world a radically committed love, let's be faithful in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. Let us not waste our lives, let us lose our lives to the glory of God.
One Solitary Life
He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman
He grew up in another obscure village
Where he worked in a carpenter shop Until he was thirty
He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never traveled more than two hundred miles From the place where he was born
He did none of the things Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself
He was only thirty three
His friends ran away
One of them denied him
He was turned over to his enemies
And went through the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing
The only property he had on earth
When he was dead He was laid in a borrowed grave Through the pity of a friend
Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race
And the leader of mankind's progress
All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed
All the parliaments that have ever sat
all the kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life
Dr James Allan © 1926.
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