Fully Alive

     Life is one of the most valuable gifts we’ve been given. God masterfully created each of us in his own image with unique talents, personalities and purpose. His greatest desire is that we find meaning in him so that we’re able to radiate his glory and experience fullness of life. As we daily abide in Christ, we become passionate about investing our lives and using our gifts in a important way that has eternal significance. We’re no longer content to live each day according to the world’s standards or simply for ourselves. Instead, our heart longs for significance and purpose – that God will use us to have an impact on the world.
     While we’re born with little understanding about God’s plans for us, as we mature we develop an increasing sense that we were created for a specific reason to fulfill a calling we’ve been given. God puts this longing within our hearts to do something beyond ourselves for his kingdom. Though sometimes we lose sight of this vision through setbacks and disappointments, deep inside we know we were made for something far greater than mere existence. We may or may not possess what others consider extraordinary talents, but we’ve each been given gifts. As we enter into a personal relationship with God through Christ, he helps us discover and develop these gifts and shows us how we can use them in life transforming ways.
     Imagine that we’re standing before two closed doors and can’t see what lies beyond them. One door has a sign that says, “Your plans and future the way you want it.” The other door reads, “God’s plans and his future for you.” Which one will we choose? The promise of the first door is tempting, because by entering it we think we’ll become the master of our lives and be given the power to make our dreams come true. It offers us the chance to design our lives the way we envision them.  The second door requires a leap of faith, because by entering it we agree to surrender our right to determine our future.  We give our lives over to God in trust and confidence that he’ll guide us down the right path to pursue the dreams and goals he has gifted us to fulfill. He guarantees that though we will have trials, our lives will overflow with a deep sense of purpose, power and love.
     When we choose the first door we become lord of our lives with a focus on how we can control and direct everything. We chase after things we believe will bring satisfaction and happiness, whether it’s money, relationships, power or position. In order accomplish what we want, we devise short and long term goals and pursue them with relentless passion, since attaining these goals is the core of our hope and future. However, the promises of this lifestyle are deceptive. When we reach our dreams apart from a relationship with God, we discover that it’s impossible for them to ever satisfy the deep longing of our hearts. In fact, the more we achieve the more dissatisfied and even miserable we become, because with each success we develop the insatiable desire for more. Life becomes an endless cycle of setting goals, striving to accomplish them and then pursing something bigger and better. On the other hand, when our plans don’t work out like we expected we are often struck with disappointment, frustration and even anger. Whether we succeed or fail at receiving what we think we want, we’re left with emptiness in our soul that magnifies the fact that we were created for something far greater, something much more significant.
     This emptiness often leads us to the second door, where we discover that there is an awesomely good, loving and powerful God who wants to free us from this vicious cycle of self destruction and striving after idols that can never satisfy. He daily calls out to us to put our trust in his Son, Jesus Christ, and stop depending on our own understanding. He says that if we’ll acknowledge him in all our ways, he will direct our paths and fulfill the deep desires of our heart (Prov 3:5-6). But following him comes with a cost. We have to release the plans we’ve so tenaciously held on to in the past and trust him to give us all that’s good for our lives – blessings that will benefit us holistically and bring him glory.
     God says in Jeremiah 29:11 that he knows the plans he has for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future. This is not a promise for financial prosperity or an easy life but instead a guarantee that God is always working everything (even the small details) for our ultimate good and his glory. As our loving Father, he genuinely cares about us, so much so that he’s numbered the hairs on our head and stores our tears in a bottle. He knows every desire we have, and as a father has compassion on his children so God has compassion on us. Because his love is perfect, he knows exactly what gifts to give us and how to take care of all our needs.
     In a world where we’re told to pursue power, possessions and prestige, we’re faced with challenging decisions about how we’ll invest our lives. Will we follow the dictates of the world, or will we follow God? Will we seek to live life our way, or will we live it God’s way according to his plans? There are two doors, two roads, and two completely different ways of life. The first door often seems like the right one, but the Bible says it ends in misery and eventually death.  The other door leads to life, peace and a future filled with purpose, along with many tests and trials to prove our faith. When we enter this door through trust in Jesus Christ and a surrendered heart, we begin to experience the abundant and eternal life we were created to have. We become fully alive! 

"I Love the Lord Cause He Heard My Voice"

     I’ve been told by some of my family and even my closest friends that I have an “ugly cry.” It’s one where I scrunch up my whole face, turn down the corners of my lips, open my mouth and bawl. I’d never looked at myself in the mirror before when I cried, so I was clueless about what they were talking about. When I finally got the courage to test their theory, I quickly and even shockingly admitted they were right -- my crying was downright ugly!
     That said, I have a Father who daily, hourly “hears my prayers and sees my tears” (2 Kings 20:5). He listens, cares deeply, and works on my behalf at all times. I have a God who loves me no matter what I look like even when I’m crying, regardless of how much I’ve failed or how weak I am. His love is more solid than any mountain and can't be moved or shaken by anything I or anyone else thinks, does or fails to do (Is 54:10). I have the awesome privilege of going to him at any time of the day with fears, requests and even childish demands, with the certainly that he’s always there -- fully present and engaged, rejoicing over me, delighting over my life and finding great joy even in my tears. He knows that while my weeping may last for a night, his joy will come in the morning as I bring my pain to him and trust him to help and bring healing (Ps 30:5).
     I love the Lord because he hears my voice, because he first loved me (1 Jn 4:19), because he guarantees that nothing can come between this bond of love (Rom 8:38-39), and because he promises that his great, amazing, unstoppable love is also eternal -- no matter what (Jer 31:3).

"I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Because he turned his ear to me, I will call on him as long as I live." (Ps 116:1)

Christ Our Treasure

     I don’t know if I’ve ever been happier than when we landed in the Dallas airport on July 18^th and the guy in customs asked if we were US citizens. After we nodded yes, he said with a perfect Texas drawl, “Welcome home.” I thought about kissing the ground, but knew it would cause a scene and Mark and I were both too tired for that. Instead, I quietly took my place in the line designated for citizens with a thankful heart that this was my home and I was welcome back even after being gone for almost three years.
     Living in Korea changed me more than I realized. In fact, it wasn’t until coming back to the states that I could see how God masterfully used all the struggles of living abroad to mold me into a different person. When I left America, I felt like I was losing everything….my house, friends, hometown, the comforts of living in a place that was familiar to me. But as the days spilled into weeks this summer, I’ve realized that God wanted me to leave these things behind so that I could gain a new perspective on life and experience more fully the freedom he bought for me in Christ.
     Like most everyone else in the world I long for security so that I don’t have to fear what tomorrow brings. It’s so easy to convince myself that the obsession to control and possess people and things is a necessary solution for this need for security. I reason that because every woman wants a nice home it’s okay if I make that a priority. Or because money is essential for life, it’s normal that I’m constantly focused on how much I have. But instead of the steady focus bringing comfort and helping me conquer fear it enslaves me to the things I pursue, causing me to lose passion and perspective about why I’m actually on this earth. I used to think my purpose in life was to marry a nice man, have beautiful, intelligent children, live a comfortable life and amass as much “stuff” as I could so that I could live out my final days on earth in comfort and ease. This seemed to be the way everyone else was doing life, even in the church, so I categorized it as normal and set out to make it my goal. But God had a different plan.
     When we moved to Korea, we decided to leave everything behind except for two suitcases each which we carefully packed. We arrived at our apartment to find it sparsely furnished with simple beds, a kitchen table and a couch -- no pictures, rugs, bric-a-brac, curtains. Just a bare apartment that was about one third the size of our previous home. No yard, no trees, no grass.  We did what most people would do and went out to try to find “stuff” to put in our apartment to make it home. We learned where to shop to buy “stuff” to wear and “stuff” to eat and “stuff” to decorate with. But no matter what we put there, we couldn’t deny the fact that it wasn’t what we were used to.
     There have been times when I’m cooking in our small kitchen at a counter that seems designed for midgets  or looking out over the patchwork gardens and cement houses where people are barely making ends meet that I want to shake myself, hop on a plane and run for home. But then I remember what it is that God has been slowly teaching me these past three years – that as much as I love America it’s not going to make me happy. No matter how much it comforts me to be there, he’s placed a longing in my heart for something more. The Spirit witnesses with my spirit most every day that God has a plan for my life and purposes for me that transcend the walls of a home or earthly comforts. He wants me to learn to live by faith and depend on him in an ever increasing way. Sometimes he accomplishes this through simple things, other times he takes me to a far off place where I have nothing but him and he once again reminds me about my ultimate goal – to live and move and have my being in him.
     I’m learning to say what the apostle Paul said in Romans 14:8, “If I live, I live for Christ. If I die, I die for Christ. Whether I live or whether I die, I live or die for Christ.” It often helps when I’m feeling sorry for myself or worrying about tomorrow to take it a step further and say. “If I have a home or don’t, have money or am broke, am healthy or sick, have a good or a bad job, lose all I hold dear or am blessed with much, I belong to Christ and he alone is my treasure.”
     With this focus, my thinking is realigned with God’s perspective. I’m reminded that I’ve died with Christ and am now raised up with him to live a new life in a new way with new goals and purposes (Col 3:1-11). I don’t have to strive for and fret over what’s going to happen to me because he’s guaranteed  through the blood of Christ that he’ll never leave me or forsake me (Matt 6:31).  He promises that if I seek him first he’ll give me everything I need (Matt 6:33). If I make him my treasure, I’ll be filled with joy unspeakable, a heart at peace and a purpose driven life that far exceeds anything I can strive after or achieve on my own (Ps 1:3). 
     When I do finally die one day, I don’t want to be remembered as someone who clung desperately to this life. Instead I want to be remembered as someone who really believed the Gospel and lived like it was the greatest reality in the world. I want to be able to say to God (by his grace and the power of his spirit) over and over again and mean it, “I’ll go where you want me to go, do what you want me to do, be who you want me to be because you’re my Lord and my God. You’re my treasure.”

Randy Alcorn on the Treasure Principle. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDmS3sDFouk