Living Large(r)

Isaiah 43:1, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine!”

God has created you for great things, things you can’t even imagine; many of those things will not be revealed to you this side of Heaven.

Job 37:5, “God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend.”

MY STORY

I want to tell a story; it involves my life but isn’t about me. It is about what God has done that demonstrates the beauty, mystery, and elegance of his plan for each of us. Back in the early 1980’s I had a perplexing heart problem. I had no heart damage; it just stops beating every once in a while. It was a partial heart block that morphed into a complete heart block. My cardiologist was Doctor Charles Wickliffe. One night in the Emergency Room, Charles saved my life. I was joking with him one minute and waking up in surgery the next. I love this man, not only because he saved my life, but he has become a great friend. He retired from his practice a few months ago. I’ve never really connected the dot for him concerning the impact he has had. Here is what I will tell him the next time we meet.

HIS STORY

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

At three o’clock in the morning, you got out of bed to come to see me in the Emergency Room when you could have passed it on to the on-call resident. In doing so, you were the man that God created you to be, skilled, compassionate and caring. Neither of us knows the eternal impact of that evening. You see, I went on to spread the Gospel into over 50 prisons through the Champions for Life prison ministry. I spent over 20 years serving in the High Tech Ministry in Atlanta. I was on the board that created Roswell Day of Hope to reach the underserved in Roswell, GA. I now work with International Mission Connection in Honduras and International Micro-Business Development in Kenya, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, and Honduras. All of this was made possible by your act of obedience. All of this, and more, is to your credit. God rejoiced that night not for what happened that night but for what was still to come.

Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

YOUR STORY

“How you live your life is a testimony of what you believe about God.” – Henry Blackaby

All of us have a story, but more importantly, someone out there has unknown stories about us. Your greatness and your true impact are yet to be revealed. I don’t know a thing about your life. I don’t know what you have done, what you have avoided doing, or the darkness you hide (we all do). I know as certain as I know there is a God in Heaven; God created you for greatness. Quietly, through everyday actions, you have encouraged others and you have shown the Gospel through your character. Some of those people who came in contact with you have, or will, go on to have a major impact for God’s kingdom here on Earth.

Matthew 23:10-12, “Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

Greatness isn’t always an act of courage or sacrifice; it starts with a small act of kindness that blossoms through eternity to create a garden, each plant propagating more plants. Life is not easy, but it has meaning. If God answered every pray precisely as we prayed it, would we need faith? If our lives were perfect; we were well educated, best job, best spouse, and best everything, would we seek God?

We spend a great deal of time punishing ourselves for the person we are rather than rejoicing over who we could be. Today be that new person. Know that there are acts of kindness that will not show fruit this side of Heaven. But that act, the one you do today, maybe the seed that grows a garden.

Matthew 13:31-32, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

Charles is known as a great Cardiovascular Surgeon; he has saved many lives, some were important people. God knows him not for all of those physically healed, but for the ones who went on to spiritually saved others, which saved others, that saved others.

We are His. We should start living our lives like we believe it.

1 Corinthians 1:27-31 “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”