Many of our
problems arrive from our focus on us. The cure, which leads to fulfillment, is
a life focused on Christ.
Max Lucado
makes the case for this idea in his book It’s Not About Me.
Everything
and everyone was made to reveal the glory of God. God is holy. It is hard to
imagine how higher and more is God than anything else is, and He made
everything else. Contact with God changes us and we become holy, different and
set apart, too. When Moses
was given a glimpse of God, his face shown so that people were afraid to look
at him.
We are to
shine, too, as mirrors that reflect the glory of God. We have reason to praise
Him. He is our stable foundation; He never changes though all else does. He
saved us entirely for His own purposes and pleasure even though we could never
deserve it. He redeems our suffering, and
our fleeting suffering for His name’s sake will be rewarded with eternal
blessing. If we have success in life,
it is His gift. Even our bodies are His and make to glorify Him, so it
important for us to take care of our bodies and avoid sin.
I found a
personal connection to one of the stories recounted by Lucado. As a Texan, he was
aware of the collapse of the Queen Isabella Causeway on September 15, 2001,when
it was struck by a barge.
I was vacationing
nearby in Corpus Christi at the time. One of my in-laws reacted in fear, assuming my
wife and I must have been trapped, or worse killed (even though the bridge
collapsed in the middle of the night), and frantically called anyone in the family
or at work
who might have some contact with us. A close relative of mine shrugged it off, saying
a call from the Texas Highway Patrol would come if something happened to us.
One reacted with fear (surely, something was wrong), one reacted with faith (we
were in God’s hands, whatever happened).
You might
note that this happened only days after terrorists crashed airplanes into
the World Trade Center towers in New York. On
the first day of that vacation, we were struck by another car under strange
circumstances in Arkansas,
leaving us stuck in Morrilton; we ended up skipping a planned stop at Hot
Springs. The collapsing bridge was the last straw, we were too heartsick to
enjoy our vacation and we came home early.
Even after
all that, we were grateful.
We were alive and well when so many others were not. We had our family with us
when others did not. We knew God was with us, comforting us, and that even if
the worst had happened to us, we would be with Him, which is the thing our
hearts long for.
If you’re
interested in this book, you may also be interested in
I previously
posted a review of this book here->.
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