Stirred to Action

The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 1 Timothy 1:5

As I take small steps into embracing the greater context for my life, I find this way of living more satisfying than demanding my way. 

I have begun to act on this new awareness in small ways. I have decided to make myself more available to my family and have already seen impact. Sometimes it is simple things, like answering my brother’s call when he was driving home from work. I was busy and assumed he just wanted to chat, but I answered. He had had a rough day at work and really appreciated the opportunity to vent. I took 15 minutes out of my day and was no worse for it. I got to support him and still get my work done. Plus it was nice to hear his voice.

It amazes me what a struggle it is to make even the little sacrifices. What did I sacrifice? I worked fifteen minutes later that evening, and I watched fifteen minutes less TV or put off paying my credit card bill until the following evening or . . . who knows what menial task or form of entertainment would have occupied that time. Whatever it was, it is lost forever. So what? I can sacrifice personal amusement for the satisfaction of being there for those I love, and I will still tend to my responsibilities.

By making time for my brother, I accomplished something of eternal value, even if it was small. I want to prioritize the actions—often personal interactions—that will echo in eternity. I can let temporal things take a back seat, be they entertainment or responsibilities. Some are unimportant (like watching TV), and others are important but secondary (like paying bills).

I am grateful for this clearer vision of the Larger Story in which I have a part. I am hopeful that I will have greater impact on the people in my life—or as we say in Wellspring: greater impact on my domain—as I move forward with this awareness. My desire is to increasingly express God’s love for those whom I imperfectly love. I want to live selflessly—aware of the Larger Story—as He reveals new ways for me let go of personal comfort and love others sacrificially.

I wonder in what larger ways this will play out in my life.

My Blog URL

Multiple people have asked what hmmtatj@blogspot means. My first choice was, "hmm," a sound indicating reflective thought, but that and all similar addresses were taken. "tatj" refers to the blog title, Thoughts Along the Journey. Addresses similar to that title were also taken. And there you have it.

Greater Context

An excerpt from my journal entry this Sunday:

God is up to something. He has been stirring my heart today. I am seeing myself in the greater context in a fresh way.

It started in the shower this morning. I enjoy long, hot showers. They wake me up every morning (the reason I don't need coffee before lunch) and sooth my aching joints and sore muscles after athletic events. For me hot showers are among life's little pleasures. I expressed to God my gratitude for hot running water.

Then I thought of the family I spent a night with in Honduras during a mission trip. Their shower was a hose from an external faucet stuck through a hole in the bathroom wall. Those people don't have hot running water. They have never experienced the bliss of a hot shower. I was struck by the realization that I have come to consider hot showers a basic necessity of life. They are not.

On my way to church I noticed that my car is only a few miles away from 100k. I reflected on how far I travel in a year's time and wondered what it would be like not to have a car. Many people in ATL don't have their own vehicles. Many cultures today still exist with few or no vehicles. People have lived throughout the ages without such modes of transportation just as they have survived without running water—much less hot showers.

At church we saw a presentation on Redeemer, Trinity's daughter church in Vine City, which is one of the five most dangerous zip codes in the US. A number of Trinity members moved there to become part of that neighborhood and show them that they are not simply a project to Trinity. They live among them and can now say, "Your dangerous schools and parks are our dangerous schools and parks. We are committed to you and invested in sharing the love of Christ with you." The story of Redeemer gripped my heart.

They have a monthly worship service in the neighborhood and plan to launch Redeemer with weekly services this spring. I am single with no kids and few responsibilities. It occurred to me that I could feasibly move there to become part of that mission. For me it would be a relatively small sacrifice, and I would take great joy in bringing the message of hope in Christ and a Larger Story in which to live to a group of people who desperately need more than this world to live for. And I now have more income that could be used for Kingdom purposes than I have had in the last five years. Who knows what God might do.

Before Kris spoke a word of the sermon on resurrection, God was already deepening my conviction and awareness that my life is about much more than me. It is about much more than building a successful career doing what I love, preparing financially for retirement, finding a wife (for my own happiness) with whom I could start a family and raise children. My life is ultimately about the eternal ripples that result from the splash of my presence in this world. It is about Jesus revealing His heart through me, offering life and hope to a world that is dead and hopeless without Him.

Kris challenged us at the end of his sermon to live in such a way that our transition into eternity is seamless because we have already been living in it. May my attachments to the things of this world grow dim and the light of Christ shine eternity into my heart with increasing brightness and brilliance. May it spill over into others in my life in a way that transforms them as well.

Please leave a comment. I'd love to hear how you see your life in a greater context than your own comfort or happiness.