It’s Monday, and most of us have to do some kind of work today – whether that’s laundry or office work. And while some of it is exciting, it’s mostly the same thing we did last Monday, and the one before that.

But this is how we spend most of our waking hours for most of our lives, and for probably all of us at some point, it’s where we’ll look to find the answer to the question, “Am I significant?”

Like a rock thrown into a pond, our lives make a splash – maybe even a big splash – but in the end, the water closes over all of us and the ripples quickly fade. What’s the point? You do the dishes or the laundry only to do them all over again the next day. Life is short, and something in us longs for permanence, for some lasting proof at the end of this life that we were ever here.

Like crack addicts, we keep going to experiences, happiness, money professional success or other stuff, but all of these fade pretty quickly and we end up looking for another hit. For Solomon, who wrote Ecclesiastes, the answer is in a phrase he repeats over and over again: “under the sun.” There is nothing “under the sun” that will give meaning to our existence. But there is Christ, who made everything, and He is NOT “under the sun.” The last verses of Ecclesiastes chapter 2 explain that our daily grind – even when it feels routine – can have infinite significance IF we do our work to please Him.

So there’s my point: what you do: the calls you make, the paperwork you fill out, the pain in the butt stuff that really does seem like meaningless work – spend your days working to please God, and in that you’ll find a life that is truly meaningful and significant.

Kent Jones, a guest preacher at the church plant we’re a part of gave us a great sermon this past Sunday to kick off the New Year.  It’s often (wrongly) said that “the safest place to be is in the center of God’s will.”  But those who have been there – John the Baptist, for example – hardly found it to be safe. Jesus has never been “safe for the whole family.”

As in Mr. Beaver’s famous quote from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe:

Safe? …Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.
(Hebrews 1:1-2)

It’s easy to miss the Savior in all the lights, presents, office parties and general busy-ness of the Christmas season, but to be fair, almost everyone missed Him at the first Christmas, too. Back then, it had been 400 years since God had any real interaction with His people, and their world had gotten a lot darker during that time. While the Jews of that day were just trying to get by, to survive, the Savior snuck in the back door.

If we’re honest, most of us probably go about our days as if God was distant, silent, and kind of uninterested in the mundane details of our lives. But think of this: if Christmas is true, it means that God is not silent.

And if the God who created you and me is speaking to us through His Son, we probably should pay close attention to what His Son has to say.

We thank God because of your faith and love for the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.
– Colossians 1:3-15

The basis of the supernatural love that defines Christ’s disciples is the future hope of the Gospel, not the inherent loveliness of Christians.

This is significant: we love the person Christ is making our fellow believers into, not the fallen saved sinner they are today. We see the person as Christ sees them, not as the world sees them. Because of this, we can forgive them because their present sinful self doesn’t yet reflect who they are in Christ. The Spirit is making them who God designed them to be… but they’re not there yet, just as we aren’t.

Our confidence in Christ’s redemptive, transforming, indwelling presence – our hope in the His glorious future – defines our present reality, instead of the opposite.

Of course, the opposite is also true. When we fail to love our brothers and sisters, to forgive them and look for who God is making them, we show how little we believe God’s promises. Do we trust the Spirit at work in others?

Also see John 13:35; 1 John 2:9-11

And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?
– Ex 12:26

In Exodus 12, God institutes the Passover, an even so significant it reordered the Jewish calendar, and commanded its annual observance “throughout your generations.”

As Christians, Easter is our “Passover service” as we remember God’s ultimate deliverance of us, but each Sunday is a smaller – and too often routine – version of the same. It becomes an interruption, just another obligation, rather than a remembrance of something life-alteringly significant. And our kids see that. 

Is it any wonder they don’t see the point of church when they leave home?

Kids will ask. How will we answer them? 

“Why do we have to go to church, Daddy?”

“Because the Lord delivered us, he rescued us from slavery and gave us new life! – and so we go to be with the Delivered and together remember the incredible things the Lord has done for us.”

O God the author of all good, I come to Thee for the grace another day will require for its duties and events. I step out into a wicked world; I carry about with me an evil heart. I know that without Thee I can do nothing, that everything with which I shall be concerned, however harmless in itself, may prove an occasion of sin or folly, unless I am kept by Thy power. Hold Thou me up and I shall be safe.

Preserve my understanding from subtilty of error, my affections from love of idols, my character from stain of vice, my profession from every form of evil. May I engage in nothing in which I cannot implore Thy blessing, and in which I cannot invite Thy inspection. Prosper me in all lawful undertakings, or prepare me for disappointments. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient for me, lest I be full and deny Thee and say, Who is the Lord? or be poor, and steal, and take Thy name in vain.

May every creature be made good to me by prayer and Thy will. Teach me how to use the world and not abuse it, to improve my talents, to redeem my time, to walk in wisdom toward those without, and in kindness to those within, to do good to all men, and especially to my fellow Christians. And to Thee be the glory.

From The Valley of Vision

Do you want to be significant or just successful?
Esther and Jesus were both called “for such a time as this” to save many. Esther was made Queen, Jesus was crucified. What if God’s plan for you to do something significant looked more like the latter?

Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.
John 12:27