An end to another decade.
The birthday that is on the horizon will be my sixtieth. It seemed so old when I was younger. Yet now, at this perspective not old at all. Life has been long and short at the same time. I raised adults, buried parents, and greeted grandchildren. I have enjoyed celebrations and grieved disasters side-by-side. The years have brought with them a knowing that life is too short to hold all its lessons in a simple annual counting. We must number our days.
On my birthday, I will have lived 21,900 days. If I live to the age of the last three generations of women before me, I have a mere 7,300 days left. That’s it. What I do with these days invokes within me a feeling of urgency. I want them to count.
So here’s the thing I have learned from the other 21,900—I cannot live well without God’s influence in my life. In fact, if each of us embraced God and lived well, encouraging others to do the same, much if not all that is wrong in the world would simply disappear. The world would be changed for the good. But it will take all of us.
This is where the moans of, “I can never make enough of a difference,” begin to be heard and precious moments are lost on self-focus and chants of “Woe is me”.
Stop with the excuses.
Make your days count.
I know that embracing God for yourself is easy, but when it comes to telling others about how they can do the same, well. . .it can be a bit intimidating. Don’t let that stop you. This is really good news and you need to share it. Here, let me go first—
With all the crappiness going on in the world around us, I think there is a solution that maybe we have overlooked. It’s Jesus. You know the guy. He lived and died to give us the option of living life a better way. He is not only the answer to improving our lives and our family’s lives, but the whole world as well.
You may be thinking (at least that’s my hope), “This is really good news, but how can I get in on this better way?”
It’s a simple shift of direction—away from the path you are on to one that follows Jesus. Let me tell you how it has changed my life. . .
So that’s it. It’s all you have to share when called upon to influence others. Not too intimidating and very doable. Use your own words and stories.
If your friends want more, point them to the Bible. That’s where you find Jesus’ story and how people were affected by His life and teaching. We can know why He came, how He lived, and what He valued. And we will read how He died to make things right between us and God, and how He has gone on to prepare a place for us in heaven. The Bible reveals these things and more, like how He did it all out of love for us.
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. . .”
1 John 3:16 ESV
World change will come from each of us living each day in a way that celebrates the life and death of Jesus. The people around us will see, and hopefully hear from us how our lives are better because we follow Jesus. Why wouldn’t they want in on something that will change the world?
Make your days count.
Tell others about Jesus.
(I just did. You can to.)
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. … Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!
Psalm 90:14, 16-17