abilities

While You’re Here

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I heard something tonight at Kairos that got me thinking.

Basically, the main speaker, Chris Brooks, was speaking of relationships and said something to the effect that one of the things a woman should look for in a man is how he is investing in his friends and giving himself away for those he loves. Chris said that true love doesn’t wait in the sense that you don’t wait until you’ve found that special someone to become the right person.

Maybe that applies to more than just relationships.

Perhaps you’re in a job that’s not your dream job. Work as though it were your dream job and give your absolute best every single day, and maybe one day a door will open for you to find your dream job.

Maybe you’re in a season of life that isn’t where you thought you would have been in by now. Learn to embrace your circumstances and find the joys in each day of living– including the ultimate gift of being alive.

Don’t mark time while you wait the next phase of life. Be the best possible you, trust God as fully as you know how, and leave the results to Him. Do everything in your power to make the small world around you, and the people in it, better for your having been there.

There is no rewind on the remote control of life. You don’t ever get to go back and relive a moment once it’s gone. The key is to live each moment while it’s still in the present rather than looking ahead to what may be or looking back to what might have been.

In the Bible, Ruth didn’t waste time chasing down her Boaz. She was faithful where she was to the one she was with– her mother-in-law. She loved and served  the person right in front of her with everything she had.

I can think of no better example of how to live in a season of waiting.

 

The Face of God

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mosaic
I get emails from the Henri Nouwen Society with daily meditations on them. I thought today’s was especially good and reminded me of a blog I’d written a few years back. This one’s better.

I love the imagery and the idea that every believer carries the image of God, but only collectively can the true imago dei of God be seen and truly appreciated.

“A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself.

“That is what our life in community is about. Each of us is like a little stone, but together we reveal the face of God to the world.  Nobody can say: ‘I make God visible.’  But others who see us together can say: ‘They make God visible.’ Community is where humility and glory touch.”

I think that says it all. People do see God in us individually, but people see God best when we are living in community. That’s where our unique gifts, talents, passions, and abilities come together to form something that collectively is more than the sum of its parts. That’s the Church.

So think about that the next time you’re gathered together with believers. You’re not just a group of people, but a work of art– a mosaic– displaying the great worth and glory of God.