WATCHWORD:
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20
So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Colossians 1:10
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8
Meditation:
On Your Dash? On Mine?
Recently a friend passed away. I had not known him very long, perhaps five years, our contacts were mostly following church services when we would spend 5 to 10 minutes, the time it took to walk to our cars. We talked about many things: our health, because both of us have had our challenges; our families and how proud we were, and we spoke reverently about golf, both of us loved the game. There was something special about my friend, quality infused with love and compassion.
Despite its brevity, I feel keenly about the loss our friendship. Life goes on, but impressions remain. One morning, I was watching Joyce Meyers and something she said stuck with me. She talked about the importance of the dash, that little line between our birth date and our death date. My friend was born in 1946 and passed away in 2024. Sometime in the future I’ll get out to the cemetery and I’ll look at his marker and it will read 1946-2024.
Did you see that? That little line between the dates, the little dash that represents the most important elements of our lives. What we have done, how have we lived, how have we honored God, how we loved others, how we responded to adversities, how we left our mark. A little line, loaded with how we have lived our lives.
None of us can avoid the fact that we have a dash, a small space of time on earth to live our lives. More often than not we get up in the morning and we live our day without giving a lot of thought to what we’re leaving behind in the aftermath of how we lived that day. But it’s right there on our dash. Have we loved God with all of our hearts and all of our minds and all of our strength? Have we treated these bodies of ours with respect and honored them? Have we loved others as God loves us?
Others cannot judge us on those important points. Those are the commands of our Lord and we have control over how we do it, all elements of love, how we have reached out, how we have been viewed by others as a loving person. These are all part of our dash, these are all elements of our relationship with God, and He will judge.
I never played golf with my friend, my loss. I don’t know how he reacted to the bad shot, the shank, the 12 inch putt missed, or how he interacted with his competitors. It doesn’t matter. What I know about him is what I perceived, what I saw in him. What I saw was a man that loved and who was loved. I want that on my dash. Wouldn’t you?
Prayer – Christ In Me?
Precious and Almighty God, you lay out every moment of our lives. You’ve numbered the hairs on our head. You have equipped us to deal with the adversities that come into our lives. You are an amazing, generous and loving God. I pray that your guidance will continue, open our spiritual ears, Lord, to hear the murmurings of your spirit within that points each of us in the way we should go. At the start of each day, Lord, remind us of who’s in charge and the fact that your plan is perfect for the purpose you have given us. May others see Christ in us, through each and every day. Amen.
