Living On Purpose

Revelations 2:4,5 …You have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.

Have you ever looked down at your life and wondered, How did I get here? I am not speaking of the events of life over which we have no control.  I am talking about looking back at the choices you have made, thinking That is not me. That is not what my life is supposed to be about.

It is to this life that Jesus says, Remember your first love. Remember who you are supposed to be.  Life has a way of naturally redirecting our energies away from that which we know to be most important.  Everyday obligations dull our passion for our first love.  We cannot just stop living normal life to follow God, so we allow normal life to suffocate our love for God.

Jesus however, says that I can learn to live this life with my eyes on God.  Like Peter, walking on the water, I can choose to keep my eyes on Christ, or I can be overwhelmed by the wind and waves of the world.

When I walk through life with my eyes on God, everything is in its proper place.  It is when I make myself or others the most important thing in my universe that everything is askew.  When I pursue my own desires above all else, disaster ensues.

Even good people and things, my wife, children and career, can become something they are not meant to be if I do not keep my gaze on God.  When I ask others to fill my deepest needs, I always hurt them and me.  My wife and children can never be God or replace God. It is only when I am in right relation with God that I can love my family as I am meant to love them.

I daily need to choose that which is most important to me and then constantly keep my life aimed at that.  I need to live on purpose.  If I do not, by default I follow self and world.  Peter did not make a conscious choice to sink.  He just allowed himself to be distracted by the wind and waves.  Here is the key.  Everything except God is wind and waves.  I do not live purposefully by pretending the wind and waves do not exist.  I just learn to walk amongst the wind and waves while keeping my eyes on God.

I do not want to look back at my life in sadness, wondering how I got there.  I want to live purposefully. I want to learn to walk amongst the waves while keeping my eyes on him.  So, today, I will choose to keep my eyes on God and live accordingly.