When my parents first moved here they got a storage locker mostly because their kid's stuff. I will admit, I have not taken care of my stuff yet. I was there yesterday looking for something of my parents for my wife and decided that I would look for something of mine that I have not been able to find for some time now. As I sifted and sorted I came across a box of matches that a friend had given me in high school, ten or so years ago. At the time, I was a little obsessed with fire, so the gift and the little note inside made sense. All the note said was that this friend thought the box was cool and new I liked to play with fire so she got it for me. She said in the note "Keep on Fia for God :)."
What is strange about all of this is that I have yet to use the matches. Matches, in and of themselves, have a very specific purpose: to catch and - presumably - start a fire. The purpose behind the gift was to be a physical reminder of both spiritual and emotional truth: the need to burn with passion for Christ and the affection of a friend. But these matches have never realized their purpose. They have neither burned nor reminded. They have a purpose, but they are unused.
I wonder how much people have become like those matches: physical reminders of who knows what for who knows what purpose.
I desperately do not want to waste my life, but I fear that is something that this generation has been lulled into doing. How many 20 somethings are wondering merely existing, looking to "live the good life"? How many are passionate? How many are passionate about self pursuits? How many purpose themselves for the temporary, the instant, the quick and easy? How many, I wonder, will awake one day, as I have been waking, with the sudden harsh realization that like my box of unused matches, their life has gone a much shorter distance than they once thought? That they have missed their purpose, collected dust?
It is a paralyzing thought for me. "If I have no purpose," I ask myself, "what is my point?" I suppose the better question is what have I missed? Life can not exist without a purpose, so I made a mistake, put my thoughts and hopes into a mistaken purpose, one meant for another.
This is a question that we must ask ourselves. We must because life is too short to waste with a mistaken purpose. And let me be clear that purpose is not the same as vocation. They can be integrated, but they are not the same. We are in danger, this generation and this world. Without a clear purpose we will dissolve, slowly at first and then increasing speed and direction. It is happening now all around us.
The only true answer is found in Christ. He is the only one that can redeem and restore. He redeems us from death and restores our purposes. We are made useful in the eternal by the former and in the temporal by the latter. We have been redeemed to worship and glorify God inside and outside of time, forever. We have been restored to do the good works that God has prepared for us.
So what is my next step? I am going to use those old matches.
What about you?
I wonder how much people have become like those matches: physical reminders of who knows what for who knows what purpose.
I desperately do not want to waste my life, but I fear that is something that this generation has been lulled into doing. How many 20 somethings are wondering merely existing, looking to "live the good life"? How many are passionate? How many are passionate about self pursuits? How many purpose themselves for the temporary, the instant, the quick and easy? How many, I wonder, will awake one day, as I have been waking, with the sudden harsh realization that like my box of unused matches, their life has gone a much shorter distance than they once thought? That they have missed their purpose, collected dust?
It is a paralyzing thought for me. "If I have no purpose," I ask myself, "what is my point?" I suppose the better question is what have I missed? Life can not exist without a purpose, so I made a mistake, put my thoughts and hopes into a mistaken purpose, one meant for another.
This is a question that we must ask ourselves. We must because life is too short to waste with a mistaken purpose. And let me be clear that purpose is not the same as vocation. They can be integrated, but they are not the same. We are in danger, this generation and this world. Without a clear purpose we will dissolve, slowly at first and then increasing speed and direction. It is happening now all around us.
The only true answer is found in Christ. He is the only one that can redeem and restore. He redeems us from death and restores our purposes. We are made useful in the eternal by the former and in the temporal by the latter. We have been redeemed to worship and glorify God inside and outside of time, forever. We have been restored to do the good works that God has prepared for us.
So what is my next step? I am going to use those old matches.
What about you?
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