How Things Work

It’s funny to me how things work out sometimes. 

It seems to me like there are times in life where people basically mess everything up, and yet everything works out. And there are other times in life where people basically do everything right, and yet everything falls apart.

As I ponder that, it occurs to me that if I were a person who believed that my life depended on me making things work, I would be so frustrated by that. I think I’d just want to give up and live in the woods because I would feel totally powerless.

But, thankfully I don’t believe that. And that’s good, because I think we all know that I wouldn't last long in the woods.

Here’s what I do believe:

I believe that, in spite of how life turns out sometimes, how we live matters very much. And that’s important, because there are many days in which it does not feel that way. To the contrary, there are many days in which it feels like the choices we make don't matter because we can’t win anyway.

But I believe that life is bigger than that. Our choices on any given day are much bigger than either getting what we want that day or not getting what we want that day. That’s true because regardless of all the million things that might be going on around us, our choices are nothing more or less than the outflow of our whole selves.

I believe that we do the things we do ultimately because we believe the things that we believe, and through what we believe, we are deeply connected to either truth or deception.

When we are grounded in truth, we live out truthful things. And when we are grounded in falsehood, we live out false things. And that matters every day and in every moment because I believe that all our lives matter because all of us matter to God. 

He invented us. He keeps us alive and going. And even though this world is a mess, I believe that God sent His Son Jesus to save us, and that God has a part for all of us to play in His big plans.

And ultimately, I believe that as we choose to accept and elevate Jesus in our lives, we win.

We win the little battles that come in all our little moments, and we win the big battle of being the people that we were designed to be, and living lives of meaning and purpose, lives that matter almost as much as we do.

Consider this really cool passage of Scripture from the book of Ephesians Chapter 3 verses 20 and 21 that says:

“Now to [GOD] who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”