Shame free, purpose filled ACTION!

Bigger than my life, and better than anything else in life...

Here are two things I really, truly, daily, desperately believe in:
(1) For life to be worth living, each of us must have a purpose bigger than our own self-preservation and ease or comfort.
(2) If our life is going to be meaningful, we are going to have to have actions that match our big purposes, and then actually be about living out those actions.

A quick story...

The night I surrendered my life to God in Christ Jesus, I leapt, and sang, and shouted, and praised the Lord. I even ran around a bit. I also picked up my Bible, pondered a bit, prayed a bit, and began reading at Matthew 1:1.

A question was pounding in my mind: "God, what do I do now?"

Of course, that night, reading through Matthew 1, then 2, 3 and 4, into chapter 5 and 6, there are dozens of marching orders. However, when I got to Matthew 6:33, it was like God bowled me over, picked me up, loaded me into a cannon barrel, and shot me out.

I read, "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." (Matthew 6:33 ESV)

I'll never forget it -- I went ahead and read the next verse in the chapter, which was the last verse in the chapter -- I quickly closed my Bible and said, "That's it! That's what I am going to do! I am going to seek God's kingdom over everything, and I am going to seek righteousness over everything! I am going to do God's work and let God work on me."

That gave me the purpose that was bigger than me and action that was meaningful. I was done being driven by the question "What do I want?" and I begun being driven by the question "Father, what would you have me do?"

You see, we don't drift into excellence. We don't drift into the good things of God. We don't drift into growth.

Purpose. Action.

That's the life for me!