489: Faithful (An Unwasted Life)

We're checked into the hotel and the conference begins tomorrow. It looks like it's going to be amazing.

I was wandering the halls a few minutes ago when I spied a woman who looked familiar. Sure enough, I had seen a picture of her and her husband yesterday. It hangs in the guesthouse that bears their name. For those of you unfamiliar with how things are done in the Christian world, things are named after people who have money, specifically those who have given money to the place that bears their name. Every now and then, however, the bright idea dawns on someone to name something after someone who has accomplished more than just a paycheck. This couple has accomplished amazing things for God, having served their lives as missionaries, and, after reaching the age of retirement, they returned to the field at their own expense, with the determination to live and die among the people here.

I had the opportunity to talk with them for just a few minutes, and I had to fight hard to hold back a flood of tears. Two nights ago, I watched a DVD of John Piper's sermon "Don't Waste Your Life," and it was awesinpiring to meet a couple who has done just that. It's not that it takes a life in the mission field to count as a life well spent; what it is is the attitude and essence behind it, the ethos, the spirit. Maybe it hit me so hard because my Granddaddy is on his death bed in Alabama, and although he belongs to Christ, it seems that he's wasted his last years on this earth, having struggled greatly in the wake of Grannie's death well over a decade ago. Maybe it's because I've been thinking alot lately about what my future needs to be, or should be, or what I want it to be. Ultimately, I'm absolutely terrified of the prospect of wasting my life.

My hope and prayer is that I might be submitted to God's will, as these two have been. Come what may, if I stick to God's plan, then my life won't be wasted, no matter where it takes me, or with whom I travel. May we all have grace to have unwasted lives.