Every once in a while something happens that makes your life feel….well, a little boring, if we’re being honest. Well, okay, not boring — after all, our jam-packed lives are filled from sunup to sundown. We’re anything but bored. A better word would be insignificant. Trivial.
Like you should be doing more.
Like maybe you settled for a life that was less than what you thought it would be.
Like maybe you should be doing something more important with your life.
The other day I finished reading the book Sold, about a thirteen-year-old girl from Nepal who gets sold into sex slavery. Although the girl herself is technically fictitious, the book is based on research and interviews the author did with real women from Nepal and India.
It was horrifying: Both because of what happened in the book, but also because these are not the things that keep me up at night.
The things that keep me up at night are the accidental email I sent, the lesson at school that ended up being a huge fail, and the list of things I have to do tomorrow.
Somehow those things have become the most important things.
How did that happen?
How did my zeal for serving God and serving others end up with me living a quiet life in the suburbs in a comfortable house with a steady job?
It’s times like these that make me want to pack up and take the first plane ride out of here tomorrow to Nepal so I can save the world and do something that actually matters. But the fact that that seems a little irresponsible, impossible, rash, and unrealistic just leave me feeling insignificant instead.
So where do I even go from here?
If you find yourself questioning the seemingly insignificant nature of your life, like I tend to do:
1. Remember the most important thing
When we get frustrated that we’re not doing anything meaningful “enough” to serve God, sometimes I think it’s because we’ve forgotten the most important thing. Let me remind you of 3 stories from the book of Luke:
1. Luke 24:50-53
After Jesus appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, they “worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God.”
2. Luke 2:36-38
The Bible specifically mentions the prophetess Anna during the story of Jesus’ birth. She speaks about Him and the redemption of Jerusalem. Here is what the Bible says about her: “She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.”
3. Luke 10:38-42
The familiar story of Martha and Mary ends with Jesus declaring that Mary (remember she was the one sitting and listening to Jesus, while Mary was rushing around preparing and working) “has chosen what is better.”
What do all of these stories have in common? The importance of serving God by praying, worshiping, listening, and praising Him.
It’s tempting to read these stories and interpret them as lessons to “do less.” (Anyone else ever read a lesson on Martha/Mary that urges you to stop trying to do too much?) The point of the story is not to do less; it’s to do something different. It’s to focus on the most important thing. One more story from Matthew 26:
6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.
8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.”
10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Would you be one of the disciples, wondering why the perfume that was poured on Jesus’ head wasn’t used for something “more important” than pouring it on Jesus’ head, like giving the money to the poor?
The woman still used up the perfume. She just used it for the most important thing.
2. Start where you’re at
Our lives cease to be mundane and begin to become meaningful not when we start doing something “exciting,” but when we serve God where we are. I love this verse from the Message translation of the Bible:
“The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him.”
Galatians 3:11, the msg; emphasis mine
God is honored when we embrace the life that He’s planned for us; when we serve Him where we are.
It’s verses like these that comfort and calm the rash desire I sometimes have to do something radical:
“Don’t begin by traveling to some far-off place to convert unbelievers. And don’t try to be dramatic by tackling some public enemy. Go to the lost, confused people right here in the neighborhood.”
Matthew 10:5-6, the msg
Sometimes we get bamboozled into thinking we need to run away to serve God; in reality, He calls us to serve Him right where we’re at.
3. Find motivation in your calling
We are often motivated by our comfort rather than our calling…which I do think can make our lives insignificant.
This fall I didn’t want to go back to school. I didn’t want to deal with the decisions my district made, the mask I would have to wear, the new curriculum that I would have to learn. I started looking for a new job.
And then I thought: Why am I looking for a new job?
It’s not because I feel like it’s what God’s calling me to. It’s because I feel like it would be easier.
But making decisions based on what is easiest rather than what God is calling you to do is dangerous.
It makes the goal of your life comfort. And when we’re motivated by our own comfort, our lives become meaningless. It’s when we’re motivated by the calling we’ve received that our lives become meaningful, and we realize that working for the Lord is never insignificant.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”
Colossians 3:23-24, NIV
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