There are seasons in our lives that God uses to change us and teach us things we may not otherwise have seen.\u00a0 We don\u2019t usually plan for those seasons and they\u2019re seldom enjoyable, but they\u2019re gifts of grace none the less.<\/p>\n
A few people have asked me how I\u2019m doing after the events of the last few months and I can honestly say I\u2019m fine.\u00a0 But, I can also honestly say that my mind and heart feel like they\u2019re being tossed around in the winds of a tornado. There are a handful of things that have made a deep impression on my heart through all of this but none of them are clear. Just as soon as something starts to come into focus, a memory or a feeling comes out of nowhere and sends it whirling out of reach.<\/p>\n
However, I\u2019m acutely aware of a couple of things that I think are worth pondering.\u00a0 First of all, we all matter much more than we think we do.\u00a0 Our lives have the power to either deeply bless or to deeply hurt the people that we meet along our journey and those people remember those things long after we do.\u00a0 Your life and my life have unlimited potential to make a difference in this world and God has orchestrated divine appointments for us to touch people with His grace every day.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the contradictory thought that I think is equally true.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t matter at all.<\/p>\n
Our lives are a grain of sand on the beach of time. We\u2019re here one moment and gone the next.\u00a0 I mean, we matter to those closest to us but, in the scheme of things, we\u2019re not all that significant to the world on our own. Which is why it\u2019s astonishing to me that Christ sees us as valuable.\u00a0 Valuable enough to die for us so that we wouldn\u2019t be alone.<\/p>\n
Our lives take on a new significance when we take on God\u2019s calling.\u00a0 It seems to me that the moments in which we forget about ourselves are the moments in which we\u2019re able to touch others and truly make a difference in this world. When we aren\u2019t thinking about our need for attention, the approval of other people or getting our agenda out there, we are more able to exemplify the verse that says, \u201cHe must increase, but I must decrease.\u201d<\/strong><\/em> (John 3:30) Those are moments of eternity – the moments we were created for that carry eternal significance.<\/p>\n We are both insignificant and extremely significant. \u00a0It could be that our motivation determines which we are at any given time.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve had the privilege of hearing from a few people over the last few months and it\u2019s been humbling to hear what they have had to say about Steve and I. \u00a0\u00a0Times I don\u2019t remember doing anything in particular seem to be the times people were touched the most. In fact, I met many of them during seasons of my life in which I was simply trying to keep my head above water.\u00a0 On the other hand, I\u2019ve had a lot of alone time to think about the other moments of my life.\u00a0 The ones that left people hurt or offended or neglected.\u00a0 Those seasons when I was insecure, lonely, self-focused, or desperate for attention and significance.\u00a0 Those were the times, unfortunately, when my self awareness kept Christ\u2019s love from being seen in and through me. They\u2019re not my proudest moments but God has used them to spotlight areas of my life that need healing.\u00a0 Maybe, if I can trust Him enough, God will bind up those broken places and use them to bless other people down the road as He works “me out of me” and “Him into me”.\u00a0 (If that makes any sense.)<\/p>\n I believe life is not the end but, it does have eternal consequences. Life is short and we don\u2019t know if we have tomorrow so let\u2019s make the most of today. It doesn\u2019t really matter how many people follow me on Instagram, how many likes I get on Facebook, whether people read these blogs or not\u2026 \u00a0Sure, I\u2019d love to have a positive influence on a bunch of people with my words but I don\u2019t want that to determine how I feel about myself or my success in the Kingdom of God. I don\u2019t want my heart to subtly get drawn into the lie that attention means significance.\u00a0 I want my significance to be found in loving God with all that I am and loving others the way He loves me.\u00a0 My desire is that when I take my last breath, I will have left more of Jesus in this world than me. That will do much more good than anything I could ever say, do or offer.<\/p>\n (As a side note,\u00a0 don’t pass up the chance to thank people who have blessed you in the past.\u00a0 Most of us have no idea if we’re making a difference at all and you would be shocked at how that small bit of encouragement can change everything.)<\/em><\/p>\n \n Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible\u00ae, Copyright \u00a9 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible\u00ae and CSB\u00ae are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There are seasons in our lives that God uses to change us and teach us things we may not otherwise have seen.\u00a0 We don\u2019t usually plan for those seasons and they\u2019re seldom enjoyable, but they\u2019re gifts of grace none the less. A few people have asked me how I\u2019m doing after the events of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[80,128,130,167,174,175,291,331,444,497,500,512],"class_list":["post-1125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","category-reflections","tag-christ","tag-death","tag-decrease","tag-encouragement","tag-eternal","tag-eternity","tag-increase","tag-life","tag-purpose","tag-self-forgetful","tag-selflessness","tag-significance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}