"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
"What is the after college plan?"
"Where do you see yourself in five years?"
"What are your plans for the future?"
We live in a culture of somedays and tomorrows. A culture that places our dreams just one day, one year, one decade out of our grasp because our eyes are always on the next thing. Because the thing you are doing now is certainly not the thing you should be doing forever and there is no way that what your today holds is beneficial to what your tomorrows desire.
I'm sick of it.
This culture, these ideas, this constant feeling that our dreams are just one heartbeat out of reach creates an attitude of dissatisfaction. God created us to be passionate, active, and involved people. We are not a people created for tomorrows. We are not a people who are told to love radically and disciple others a year from now when we've fixed us. We are a people who are created for now. Not because tomorrow isn't promised, not because our lives are as a vapor (all true, BTW) but because Jesus' ministry was not a "tomorrow" ministry. He didn't look at the hungry faces around Him and say "They'll get it later, after I die and raise from the dead". He taught, He loved, He fed. KNOWING what the future held. KNOWING His fate, still He served. Still He loved. Still He fed. We should DO that. Someday and Almost are the enemies of ministry. They are the killers of passion. They are the opposite of the Gospel.
I struggle with this. I struggle with thinking that this ministry God has called me to is a thing of the future. I struggle with every time this "tomorrow" ministry gets a little further away, my soul finds itself a little more unrested. I spend all my time wishing I could fast forward to when my life will be perfect and I'll be 100% fulfilled in my ministry. I have paused the ministry God has placed me in now, to try and seek satisfaction in a future ideal. I'm ridiculous.
Going to Liberty is great and you get told a lot that you are a world changer, which is encouraging. You also get told that you are the leaders of tomorrow, and I would have to disagree. I believe that we are the leaders of now. I believe that this generation needs leaders now. They need people who are sold out for Jesus to serve Him now. They need people to love well, NOW. They don't need people planning lives of big ideas and not ministering now. This isn't a life that is full of extraordinary acts. These leaders and their lives are lived well in the ordinary. If you sweep the hallways of a church, do it well. Do it to the best of your ability and do it because it is where God has placed you. If you are a high school student, study well. There are people all around you hurting and there are hallways full of lockers and papers, but it is a unique culture that surrounds you that needs Jesus. Bring Him to them. Be active NOW in your pursuit of Jesus and your sharing of the Gospel.
If you're like me and you are in college, you spend more time than you could ever want writing papers, studying, emailing professors, and drowning in stress. Your future consumes 80% of your thought process. We need to not let our constant planning for the future drown out the ministry that is needed now. Ministry is not exclusive to the Bible majors and Seminary students. If you are going for art education, minister to that culture and show them the Beauty of Jesus. If you are going for engineering, show others the intricate designs that the creator has placed around us. Minister where you are in love and in the light of the Gospel all for the Glory of God.
Share the Gospel in every aspect. Love in every moment. Lead in your desire to do the ordinary stuff beautifully. That's the name of this blog, because it's what the Lord is teaching me everyday. Your life will not become radical because you seek out circumstances to be extraordinary. Your life with be radical because you said Yes to serving and loving God where He placed you and He made it extraordinary. Love in action is not extraordinary because the action itself is extraordinary, but it is extraordinary because we are loving as Christ loved in a world that does not understand true love.
You matter now. It's not the you of ten years from now that matters. It's not the you of yesterday that matters. It the you of now that matters and what the Lord is asking you to do now matters. Don't waste your time on the somedays and the almosts when the now needs you as you are, where you are, serving with all that you are. Be sold out for Christ and no matter what, love well. Love Unconditionally. Love sacrificially. Love in action.
For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. -Hebrews 6:10-12
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