Excuses

Think for a moment. How do you live your life? Either you live it for yourself alone, or you live it to serve others.
As we live our lives, we are going to be confronted with whether we give our life for something good or something not so good.

How do you live your life? What is most important to you? What will it be—a career, a sport, a hobby, fame, wealth? None of these will have lasting significance. Here is what I learned, service is the pathway to real significance. It is through ministry that we discover the meaning of our lives. The Bible says, “Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body” (Romans 12:5 MSG).

As we serve together in God’s family, our lives take on eternal importance. Paul said, “I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less . . . because of what you are a part of” (1 Corinthians 12:14a, 19 MSG).

God wants to use you to make a difference in his world. He wants to work through you. What matters is not the duration of your life, but the donation of it. Not how long you lived, but how you lived.

If you’re not involved in any service or ministry, think about these people. They did not use their physical circumstances as an excuse not to serve.

What kind of excuses we use? Consider these.

• Abraham was old,
• Jacob was insecure,
• Leah was unattractive,
• Joseph was abused,
• Moses stuttered,
• Gideon was poor,
• Samson was codependent,
• Rahab was immoral,
• David had an affair and all kinds of family problems,
• Elijah was suicidal,
• Jeremiah was depressed,
• Jonah was reluctant,
• Naomi was a widow,
• John the Baptist was eccentric to say the least,
• Peter was impulsive and hot-tempered,
• Martha worried a lot,
• The Samaritan woman had several failed marriages,
• Zacchaeus was unpopular,
• Thomas had doubts,
• Paul had poor health, and
• Timothy was timid.
* and you are....?

Wow, that is quite a variety of misfits! Yet, God used each of them in his service. He will use us, too, if we stop making excuses.

(inspired by a Rick Warren message}