Choices

Note: This month I’m posting a series of devotional thoughts from Acts. Many of these are reposts, some are new. I’m “working out the kinks” for submission to a compilation of short, pastoral writings in Acts to be published later this year. If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please let me know!

In Paul’s first recorded sermon (Acts 13) he talked about David. Among some of the other things he says about Israel’s greatest king, there is this: “For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep” (vs. 36)

Every time I read that, I’m reminded that everybody dies. Even those who are making a huge difference for God end up being finished with God’s purpose for them in their own generation. We don’t get two lives to serve God’s purpose—each of us only has one life to give.

I’ve heard that it is an important part of a pastor’s job to remind people that they are going to die. I agree. Christians who forget that they will die don’t quite live their lives in light of eternity; they just kind of get by and tiptoe quietly to their grave without making too much noise along the way.

Well, I want to make some noise. And I want you to make some noise, too. Every night I pray that my kids will grow up to be men—and a woman—of God who love Him with their whole heart, and who make a radical impact on their world. I pray that’s true for you, too!

Recently author Mike Foster tweeted the following: “I want to live a life where the places I go and the things I do are worthy of bringing a smile to my face when I’m on my death bed.”

Ditto! And I want to make choices that not only bring a smile to my face at that moment, but also to the faces of my friends and family…and more than that, to the heart of my Heavenly Father.

Or, like William Wallace (Braveheart) said, “Every man dies, but not every man really lives”.

I’m ready to really live before I die. How about you?