Rubber, Meet Road

When I looked at this week's Scripture, I knew that all I had to do was get out of God's way and let the Scripture speak. It's a very counter-cultural message. The world tells you to live for today. Christ calls us to die to self and forsaking all else - follow Him.



We spend so much of our lives and lead our children and others to do it as well - on things that really don't matter. Day after day, we make decisions about how to spend our time, what priorities to set, how to use our resources. Then we get to the end of our days and realize that we have reaped what we have sowed.

We have to make the decision in advance to give our lives away. A few years ago in Iraq, two Marines were sent out to man a guard post on the main access point into a base at Ramadi. They met that morning for the first time. One was from the barrio the other from Long Island. They probably got their orders from their SGT in typical Marine  fashion. "You know what to do now go do it."

They did.

When did they make that decision?

When they swore to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

How did they prepare for that day?

By living a life of sacrifice, dedication and commitment every single day.

The motto is Semper Fidelis - Always faithful - not sometimes faithful - when I feel like being faithful - when it doesn't fall in conflict with band, or baseball, or soccer, or Nascar, or the beach, or what someone thinks is important.

The law of sowing and reaping isn't up for debate. It isn't going to change.

You only get one chance at life.

You only get one shot as a Dad or a Mom to parent a child in the way God would have you do it. They look to you to learn what really matters in this life. And yet we worry more over how they are doing in school, in sports or some other earthly pursuit than we do about the most critical question of life - are they a disciple of Jesus? Ultimately that's all that matters. And most of us would give lip service to that, but day after day, week after week we keep sowing to the world and not to eternity and then we're amazed when our projected future turns out so differently.

I've been a pastor for a long time now.

Believe me when I tell you, I've seen the results of sowing the wrong seeds.

Don't waste your life.

Plant it deep in Jesus.