It's a rare occasion to have a long enough dinner break to actually be able to sit down and write, today is the exception. We leave for Amherst, MA is 4 days! It seems unreal, and yet, it couldn't come fast enough.
As I sit listening to sound check happen before we start to rehearse worship (yes, I realize that sounds like an odd statement, but cameras need to prepare somehow) I'm thinking over the last four weeks of craziness. At the beginning could I have told you it would come to this? Probably not, have I even fully wrapped my brain around what THIS is... even more so probably not. However, I do know that past the music, the drama, the flashing lights is an amazing group of people who the Lord has placed in my life for the next year. While some may not grow to be in my closest circle of friends, some will. Some I will only have for this year, some I may have for the rest of my life. Regardless of what the future looks like, I choose to cherish the time I have with them NOW.
There is a verse that someone before me wrote on my bunk, which has been on my mind a lot lately. It is Ephesians 4:1. The NIV1984 Version reads "As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received."
The ESV reads "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,"
Now to explore onto the verses in context... 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
Or, in The Message those verses read:
4 1-3 In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.
Why do I bring all this up? Because it has been causing me to question my own motives. Am I living a life that reflects the Lord's calling on my life? What do my relationships with the people around me look like? Am I humble and gentle? Do I make the first step of mending broken relationships or hurt feelings?
To be perfectly honest... I'm a human, and so I fail. But you can bet that I am continually moving. The quote "Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up" has been credited to many people - a Chinese proverb, Walter Brunell and Mary Pickford to name a few, so regardless of who said it, the concept remains the same. Are you allowing failure to knock you down and keep you down, or do you rise again set to make a difference the next time?
Proverbs 24:16 says for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again,
Go, be righteous, and live a life worthy of the calling!
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