In a Way that Matters

A member of our church died last week.  That in itself is not particularly unusual.  I'm a member of a very large church, and I would venture to say that hardly a week goes by without death affecting us in some way.  But we were particularly affected when this man died.

I didn't know him personally, although many of my friends did.  This man had been a very active member of our church for many years.  We have only been attending there for a couple of years, and in a church as large as ours, it's impossible to get to know everybody.  But this is one person I wish I had had the opportunity to know.

In the days since his passing, I've heard countless stories about him, about the way he lived his life, about how he loved his family and his church and his Lord.  Truly he was a person who lived his life in a way that mattered.

Today would have been my daddy's 93rd birthday.  He too was a person who lived his life in a way that mattered.  Who loved his family and his church and his Lord.  Who loved people.  Who lived for Jesus.

That's the essence, really, of living in a way that matters.  It isn't about setting records on the football field or writing a best seller or being a celebrity chef or finding a cure for some dreaded disease.  Although there's nothing inherently wrong with any of those things.

But living in a way that matters is more than that.  Living in a way that matters is being willing to stand firm for Jesus in the midst of a culture that increasingly is turning away from Him.  Living for Jesus is living a life of prayer.  And a life of Bible study.  It's living a life that loves people as Jesus loved them, not because they've done something to deserve being loved. Living in a way that matters is living a life that says for me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

That's the kind of life the man from our church lived.  That's the kind of life my daddy lived.  That's the kind of life I want to live.


"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on earth."  (Colossians 3:1-2, ESV, emphasis mine)