What matters?

It’s late right now. I am getting ready to go on a quick trip to the Gulf, early in the morning to see one of our Katrina Relief Service Projects. I had a wedding of one of my original youth from my youth ministry days this past weekend. When I get back I have family and friends, meetings and ministry that all need and expect my attention. So in the midst of juggling my schedule, in the same way you juggle your schedule, this question came to me. What matters? And so my mind began to race to order my life by my priorities and then what was urgent and even by my interests, but after a few moments my mind began to clear and a word came to my mind, one simply word,…….. GOD.

I know that is the easy way out, the pat answer, but not this time. This time sometime else came to my mind when the answer came up God. God said to me, I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.(Rev. 21:6) God has always been important to me and sure, we know He is the most important of all, but God calls us not to live as if He is important, but instead as if He is IT! The beginning of every day and end of every thought, the beginning of my longings, the end of our brokenness that leads us back to him.

What I am trying to say, is that He is not the most important part of life, but in fact He is life. Remember, I am the way, and the truth and the life. God is not the most important thing in my life, He is the only thing that truly matters. All other things flow from Him. Now, before you start to thinking this is more of a philosophical concept to be discussed by philosophers let me make it a little more practical. When I try to make a decision, when I set my schedule, when I have a meeting, when I interact with people at work and in the world, when I spend time with my family, when I serve in church, when I go to Africa, when I do anything without Jesus Christ from the beginning to the end of it, then I have done something that doesn’t matter. Wow! How can I say that? When I go on mission trips or serve in my church or spend time with my family, then that should matter whether God is in the middle of it at that particular moment or not, right? Well, not according to Jesus, In John 15:5 He simply says, ^“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” In other words what you do apart from Him amounts to nothing. It doesn’t matter. Although that may sound extreme or maybe even harsh the reason it is true is because you were meant for God. He designed you that way. When He fills you, whatever you are doing matters, whenever He is with you, your life becomes what it was intended to be. Now, here is even the greater news! If He become all that matters, He will beginning to arrange your life and create your schedule and remove your unnecessaries, but more than that simply having his Spirit alive within you, will make everything matter! It will matter because He is in it, bringing about His will, His purposes, even His Kingdom. Then your life will be a life that matters. Tell me what you think!

Carey