If you have been following my blog, you know that God is stirring some things within me. My life has not been "ordinary” for the past few years. And I am pretty sure He is leading me down a path that is anything but “normal”.
There is a part of me that is exhilarated at walking this road with Him. And, of course, there is the part of me that is terrified. I have been struggling with this part of me this whole week. It seems that every fear I have in life has been set on a table before me so that I will ponder it and decide what I am going to do with it. Will I let it shake me? Is my trust as big as my God?
So on Friday night I took my grandson to see “Turbo”. This is an innocent little kid’s cartoon about a snail who wishes he was a race car. There was a theme through the movie of “no dream is too big, no dreamer to small”. It was a little bit touching, but only in an “aw, isn’t that sweet” way. Without giving too much away (cause I know all of you are going to run out to see this movie), something happens to Turbo and he becomes fast, very fast and he finds a human who believes in him who gets him entered into the Indianapolis 500. (Hey, I didn’t write the movie so don’t blame me for the hokey idea!)
Anyway, about half way through the movie it hit. Chet, Turbo’s brother, is trying to get him to see that he is following a silly whim. There is no way that he will ever be a race car. So he says to Turbo, “So what if you lose your superpowers tomorrow?” And Turbo replies, “Then I guess I will have to use them well today.” Now I realize that this will probably not slam you in the face like it did me. You may even be sitting there scratching your head wondering what on earth that means. But I can tell you exactly what it means to me.
You see, I had a friend who passed away this week. It was sudden and unexpected. And it affected me. Powerfully. We were the same age. He had a lot of dreams and plans for his life and for the lives of each of the people in his family. And now, in a heartbeat, he was gone. When death happens, life slows down a little bit for the rest of us, so we can process what just happened. And I can tell you what my heart was telling me.
I don’t want to waste one more minute of my life. If I am not doing what God has called me to do, then I am not living life abundantly. I know that God has been blessing me with new experiences and new passion and new life. I know that there is a purpose that I will miss if I am not careful in listening to His voice. I want to step when He steps and move when He moves because I know that “in Him I live and move and have my being”. These ARE my “superpowers” and
I better be using them well today, because I am not promised tomorrow.
The preacher that I was listening to at church this morning said this phrase. He meant it in a totally different context than I heard it, but I will share it here because it also hit me like the line from the movie. “We, as a people, are always looking for a safe God.” I do not believe that God has called us to be safe. And I don’t think He is safe in the sense that He is calling us out. He is calling us to a different playing field. I think that a life yielded to Him is wild and edgy and completely outside of anything we might find comfortable. But I also believe that He is Emmanuel – God WITH us.
And I think that I would rather be “unsafe” with Him than “safe” without Him.
I want to live life in the light of eternity. If I am not promised the chance to use my “superpowers” tomorrow, I better us them well today.
To be continued…I hope!