Don't Waste Your Life

Does it ever seem like you just wasted your day? Or maybe your life? Well, yesterday was one of those days for me. I didn't feel like I wasted my life but I did feel like I wasted my day. I only had two things I wanted to accomplish and I didn’t get either one of them done. Instead all I got done was getting a haircut, a little bit of shopping and going out to eat. What I realize today is that I didn’t waste my time. I got done what God wanted me to do. Apparently my agenda is not always God’s agenda.

First on God’s agenda was to spend time in his word and pray. I did, but it felt like a waste of time because I didn’t get done what I wanted to get done. Ed Stezer in his book Planting Missional Churches says that “church planters are not particularly prayerful people.” (p. 97) That’s interesting because you would think that if anyone was prayerful it would be church planters. After all what else do they have to do?! Yet as a church planter I was convicted again last week in our study of Acts that God is calling me to give my attention first to prayer and the ministry of the word. Acts 6:4

Second on God’s agenda is people. I learned that when on my way to the barber I made a “bargain” with God. I said if the barber brings it up, I’ll share Christ with him. Well wouldn’t you know it, the very first words out of his mouth were, “is this your day off?” I think the fact that I had jeans, a t-shirt and a hoodie on was his first clue. Anyway I said, "I’m sort of between jobs" and proceeded to tell him my story of how I quit one job and and am in the middle of planting a church. It gave me great opportunity to share Christ and what he means to me.

Next I did a little shopping. I went on down High Street to Einstein Bagels. Einstein Bagels is the place where Carol and I met a lady named Joy. She is the manager. She and her husband just moved to Columbus and as she said, don’t have a lot of friends, so she has invited us to come over to their house for dinner some time. They live near us so we hope to take her up on her offer as soon as possible. In the meantime we’ve been dropping in just to keep in touch Besides they have absolutely the best flavored coffee I’ve ever tasted. It’s called Winter Blend! You'll have to try it. If you do tell her we told you about it.

I ended the day by going to my sister’s house. She and her husband had Carol and I along with my mom, and my two brothers and their wives up for our dinner. It was just a chance to enjoy being family as well as celebrate Christmas. In the end it wasn’t a wasted day! I didn’t get done what I wanted to do but I did get done what God had for me to do, which is good enough. Now I better go because I’ve still got those two things to do that I didn't get done yesterday, unless God’s has something better for me to do! We'll find out.