Being a person of "purpose"

 

     I was having a great discussion the other night with a close friend of mine from Texas about my earnest desire to be a man of purpose.  With every fiber of my being I want to spend the rest of my life impacting the lives of the people around me in whatever capacity I’m able.  So many of us (me included) spent a majority of our lives pursuing comfort and security.  We worked so hard to establish our careers so that we can buy that large house, nice car (or two) and build a comfortable living for us and our families.  Then we work the rest of our lives to “maintain” what we have built—never stopping to realize that in a few short years a lot of what we invested our lives into will be forgotten and all the possessions we worked so hard for will wind up going to someone else.  This whole concept became very real to me years ago while working for a local law office.  I was contacted by a trust attorney in the Indianapolis area and on more than a few occasions his law firm hired me to help liquidate the belongings of someone that was deceased --on the behalf of their estate.  On one occasion in particular, I was retained to help a family liquidate all the remaining furniture and belonging left in their mother’s house so that they could sell the property.  I accepted the job prior to even visiting the property.  When I did eventually get to the house however—I was dumbstruck.  This house was huge and it almost looked like a museum with multiple glass displays cabinets containing collectibles throughout.  From Franklin Mint collectible plates and antique china dolls, to Lladro ceramics and Precious Moments figurines it was obvious that the deceased woman had devoted her life and passion to lovingly collecting and displaying all these beautiful pieces.  And yet, here I was on behalf of her family liquidating all of this woman’s prized possessions online.  At the final auction, as people were swooping in like ravenous vultures to get the best deal on the remaining furniture, it was kind of sad.  Although I didn’t know the deceased woman—I wondered how she would have felt to see the precious collection she worked a lifetime to accumulate-- being separated and sold to the highest bidder?  I had the exact same empty feeling in the pit of my stomach while liquidating the remains of our former business, Havilah’s boutique.  As I sold the last remaining articles from the store in an attempt to liquidate a portion of that massive business debt—it was hard seeing the contents of that business that we put so much time and effort in—being sold for pennies on the dollar.  
    It is times like that when we start to see life in perspective.  Life is short and so much of what we spend our energies pursuing is temporal.  I want to invest my life seeking things of eternal significance.  When all is said and done—nobody will remember how big our house was or how cool of a car we drove.  They won’t remember our impressive resume or how much we accomplished in our given career field.  What people will remember is how much we loved those around us.  Live a life of significance and purpose by loving your neighbor, it’s that easy.

Matthew 6:19-21 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust does corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”    

The Beauty of Creation and The Atheist

I was speaking with a friend last week about an experience that I had years ago in the Army.  Although I eventually became an Army Airborne Infantryman—I initially enlisted as a Chaplain’s Assistant.   I assumed, when I first enlisted, that a “Chaplain’s Assistant” would be a similar job to being a pastor (which was the career path I wanted to pursue.)  In reality however, the job was more like being a church secretary that happened to carry a weapon. ;)  During my training as a Chaplain Assistant I met a guy named Thomas Booker.  Tom was an avowed atheist—which was very interesting being that the training we were going through was to become a Chaplain’s Assistant?  Tom was a few years older than I—probably late twenty’s and he was definitely an intellectual.  His passion was bird watching and he had initially gone to college to be an ornithologist.  During our 8 weeks of training I had multiple conversations with Tom on the reality of God’s existence and how God loves us.  As a young 19 year old however, I was somewhat intellectually outclassed by my atheist classmate.  When we would get together I would quote him from Josh McDowell, C.S. Lewis and other Christian academics.  He in turn would quote to me from Richard Dawkins writings and others who agreed with his paradigm.  It never went anywhere.  We were both simply two guys talking “at” each other using intellectual information that backed up our presuppositions.  Tom would talk to me about how science disproved God’s existence years ago and how we (mankind) were all simply “accidents” who evolved by chance.  At that time in my life I tried to reach Tom, intellectually, about the reality of God.  It wasn’t until years later that I realized that although having an intellectual foundation for my faith is important—God speaks to our “hearts” much more than he speaks to our minds.  One afternoon after graduation from our Army training and before we both shipped out, Tom asked me if I wanted to go out and look at some of the local birds and share a bottle of wine with him.  I have never been much for drinking and I normally would have said no to that request.  However, before I could decline the invitation, I strongly felt God softly speak to my heart and prompt me to join Tom for wine.  We wound up walking to some woods close to our barracks and sitting against a large tree and sharing some cheap wine while Tom educated me on some of the local birds we were seeing.  It was then, after hanging out for an hour or so in the woods that a vividly colored bird landed on the branch of a tree near us.  Tom saw my interest and started telling me everything about that beautiful bird.  What it ate, where it normally lived, how I could tell it was a male, etc, etc.  It was after listening to the passion he had speaking about this bird that I asked him a simple question.  "Tom, look at the beauty of that bird.  It’s perfectly designed wings that allow it to fly, the gorgeous coloration that is more beautiful than anything an artist could ever hope to create.  Do you really believe that something this beautiful could have just happened by chance?"  It was then that I noticed tears in the eyes of this “atheist” as he turned to me and simply smiled and said “you got me”.  We wound up finishing off that cheap bottle of wine and walking back to our barracks.  We didn’t talk on the way back as we simply were both taking in the beauty of God’s surroundings.  I never heard back from Tom again as we both shipped out to separate parts of the country the next morning.  I like to believe that he eventually asked Jesus into his heart and got to experience a personal relationship with the God that created all those beautiful birds that Tom loved so much.   

Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands”

 Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”