Our Place In This World

As my car rolled up to an intersection I noticed a man standing against the light pole with his tell-tale cardboard sign. The neatly penned words requested spare change followed with a sentiment of God’s blessing. I took what little that I had and stuck my fingers outside of the car window to hand it to this stranger with a sign.

As our hands touched I could feel the rough hard callouses on the pads of his well worn fingers. He took my change with a nod and a smile sharing the words, “God bless you.”

And I wanted to share back with him that God has indeed blessed me. And it wasn’t with a few spare coins in the bottom of my wallet for sometimes those coins are nonexistent.

Ephesians 1:3, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

In the clutches of this world, we are often defined by how far we have climbed the proverbial mountain of success. But in truth, that mountain, which seems so appealing, is a long hard climb and only God can live on the mountain top. We could never survive for we would suffocate ourselves by the very pressure of the air. The measuring stick with which we use to compare? Well, it is worn and faded. Mine is even splintered and cracked. But what a blessing it is indeed that these are not the tools heaven uses to determine my worthiness and success in the kingdom.

In Christ’s eyes, our definition of success isn’t what we have achieved, but how we’ve handled failure. Our definition of success isn’t what has been given to us, but what has been given through us. And our definition of success isn’t the content of our resume, but the content of our character.

When we step out and recognize that our time to move forward and fulfill our purpose is now, it is natural in our human frailty to expect success- even at our first attempt. But this just isn’t so. It takes time, a whole lot of patience, and a mindset of sheer determination to keep pushing forward no matter the obstacle the world will put in our way.

It is by these submissions of our character- submitting to God’s timetable and not our own, the testing of our patience, and relying of Christ’s strength to keep pushing forward- that we are able to experience God’s blessing upon our lives.

And the greatest of blessings is our ability to stand before His presence, take His power with us, and fight the good fight to find our place in this world.

Father, thank you for every blessing you have lavishly poured unto my life. And thank you that for every failure I have endured, you have counted them as successes in your eyes. In Jesus name, amen.
 

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