Live as You Were Meant to Live

It has been a long time since I have blogged.  I have struggled with the balance of working, while trying to keep a house in sensible order, and still maintain good relationships with my family by finding time to spend with my husband and children.  Quite a juggling act, I’ll have to admit. There has been more than one time in the last few months that I’ve lost balance with the whole thing and all the balls have crashed down.  My juggling act has, on many occasions, become quite a mess; time to refocus.  That is where I find myself tonight.  My body thinks it is still on the night shift, so although I’m not at work tonight, I’m wide awake after a couple hours sleep. 

At the small group my husband and I attend from our church, we have been doing a study series by Bill Hybels called Just Walk Across the Room.  The focus of our most recent study was on telling our faith story.  There a tendency to lose sight of the big picture when telling our faith story.   Often, stories are long winded, unfocused, and really not clear.  Rather than inviting people to explore faith, our stories can make them want to run from any association with faith.   We all laughed at the rather humorous way the examples of ‘bad stories’ were presented.   I found I could identify and had been on the receiving end of many a bad story, myself, while others have had to listen to my bad story.  How do we share our stories well? What makes a good faith story?  Each faith story is basically the same.  There is our life without Jesus, our decision to follow Jesus, and our life after Jesus.  Put in those simple terms, it really forces you to focus on what your life was without Christ, and what it has become because of Christ. 

It is good to revisit your faith story on a daily basis. Not necessarily wallowing in what was before Christ, but refocusing on what life has become because of Christ.  Lately, I’m not sure my life is a glowing example of “becoming”.  It can be a little closer to “hit or miss” and “sink or swim”.  Getting a grasp on what my life has become because of Christ is also helping me come to terms with other questions that I have lost sight of in the rush of busyness. What are my priorities? What is my purpose?  It is good to remember from where you have come, to help you focus on where you are going. Tonight while reading my Bible a passage really reached out and grabbed me.  In Acts 16:22-36 in the conversation between Paul, Silas, and the jailer, the jailer asked “Sirs, what do I have to do to be saved, to really live?” They said, “Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus, then you’ll live as you were meant to live – and everyone in your house included!” MSG

 Beautiful, isn’t it? “Live as you were meant to live”;   It makes me realise this is not the life Christ has called me to, or better said I’m not living my life the way Christ has called me to live it.  He has given me this life, my family, my job, and He calls me to live it the way I am meant to live.  Not my messy style, but with a clear focus on Him, putting my entire trust in the Master Jesus.   Relieving, isn’t it, so much simpler and meaningful.

I don’t remember much of my life before Christ.  I was raised in a home where I was taught about faith from my earliest memory.  When I was about five years old I knelt at the couch in our front room with my Mom and we prayed together because I had decided to follow Jesus.  Although I was very young, I distinctly remember the instant feeling of freedom and guiltlessness I experienced.  It was like a load had been lifted.  When I was fourteen I began to understand that following Jesus was not about following rules, but having a relationship with God who wants to be intimately involved in my life.  I am still learning about God’s grace, I can’t and don’t have to earn my salvation; it has never been my job.  That job belongs to Jesus, He paid it all.  I am learning to trust Him more and more. 

 Help me to put my entire trust in you, Master Jesus, then I will live as I was meant to live.    

                          

Tribute

After the recent death of my Grandfather, I was asked to write down a few thoughts to be shared at his funeral.  It was a daunting task.  My Grandfather had crammed a lot of life into his ninety-six years.  As a young man, he trained to be a cabinet maker.  During WWII he moved to Toronto and worked at de Havilland Aircraft manufacturing Mosquito bombers.  Following his return to the Maritimes he taught high School woodworking for thirty years.  After taking an early retirement, he followed his passion and entered the ministry.  As long as his health allowed, he served faithfully in the work of the ministry.

 One of the first memories I have is as a toddler, squirming out of my Dad’s arms in church to run across the aisle to my Gramps arms.  My Dad would get irritated by the running back and forth, but it didn’t bother Gramp, he loved spending time with us.  He would get down on the floor and play, always having an interest in what we were doing.  A highlight of the summer was going camping with my Grandparents.  After Gramp entered the ministry, my brother and I would go stay in the big old parsonage in the country, and on Sundays we would travel from church to church while Gramp conducted services.  He was a great spiritual influence in our lives.  Gramp baptised my brother and I, performed our marriages, and was involved in the dedication services for our children.

Gramp had a great sense of humour and loved to tell jokes.  Puns, which he said were the lowest form of humour, were his specialty.  Gramp was a story teller.   He loved to tell a good story, and he always had a story to tell:  Saint John church history stories, stories of his childhood, stories of falling down an elevator shaft, wartime stories at de Havilland Aircraft, and stories of teaching high school.  On one occasion he caught a student smoking in the bathroom.  The unfortunate fellow quickly stuck the cigarette in his back pocket.  Rather than drag him down to the office, Gramp played innocent and engaged him in a rather lengthy conversation.  When it seemed he was good and uncomfortable, and somewhat smoky, Gramp wished him a good-day, told him to quit smoking, and left him to put out the fire in his pants.  

As we grew older his stories turned to sermons.  No matter what the topic of conversation, he had a verse, or passage of scripture.  It didn’t matter where he started; he always ended with Grace, God’s unmerited favour, extended to us through Jesus.  The Gospel was his passion.  He would always finish up by saying, “It must be time to pass the plate, since I’ve preached you a sermon”.   When his health began to fail he often remarked that he sensed Jesus’ presence so near.   On one of our last visits, when he was so weak, he said “Oh, I’d love to go to church.”  The desire of his heart was to be in his Saviors’ presence.  We know that is where he is.

 I Thessalonians 4:13, 17,18 says:

¹³ Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope….¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words. 

And so he will be in the presence of his Lord forever.  The Message says it like this:

¹⁷ He'll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they'll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we'll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master.

One huge family reunion!  Amen.