Please enjoy this excerpt from Manage Your Mission – Living wisely and abundantly for today and eternity. This book will help craft your life mission, establish its priorities, and succeed in each area: Faith – Family – Fitness – Field – Friends – Fun – Finances.
I thought I should share a bit about myself so you’ll know from where I’m coming.
I didn’t have a singular, dramatic conversion experience, but I know what I believe and where my trust is now. Besides my college years, I’ve gone to church my whole life. The problem was that I wasn’t paying attention for the first 28 years.
I rebelled in my teen years but went to church to make my parents happy. I had a few brief times of feeling spiritual, such as when I was baptized at thirteen, but I am pretty sure I was unsaved. I can mention this now that the statute of limitations has long passed, but even when going to church camp, my friends and I would sometimes go off and smoke pot. So it is safe to say we didn’t get the whole Jesus thing. And that’s just one of many things I could mention but won’t because my mom may read this. My motto was often, “Breaking most of the commandments, most of the time” — swearing, skipping church, not honoring my parents as well as I should have, coveting, lusting, etc.
I sat in church for most of my 20s to be sociable. By worldly standards, I was a nicely dressed, relatively well-behaved pagan who went to church and only fell asleep during sermons most of the time, didn’t trust in Jesus, didn’t read the Bible, and didn’t pray. I assumed most people were just “playing church” like I was.
Then a few things happened. First, I noticed people using study Bibles that helped explain the text, which helped me understand it better. Then God gave me the desire to read it more. Finally, an FM rock station converted to a Christian format, and inexplicably I started listening to sermons and Bible shows while driving around. I learned countless things and started thinking about God multiple times per day instead of just once a week.
Ultimately God let me see the truth: Jesus really lived, died for my sins, and rose again. The evidence was there. I was a sinner, and I couldn’t save or forgive myself for my sins against God. I repented and believed, and I wouldn’t go back for anything.
But he doesn’t just save us to fill up the seats in church. Just as he promised, he transforms our hearts and minds through his Holy Spirit and his Word. Also, as Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” As he transforms us, our desires become more like his. He has changed my desires in many ways and fulfilled them more thoroughly than I could have asked. He gave me a real hunger for the Bible and learning about him and why we can trust his Word. As a result, I like to read and teach the Bible. He has transformed my thinking, so I now see the world more like he does, regardless of the topic. He has given me an eternal perspective, so I think of things more often in a less worldly way. He also converted my wallet and took me from being very stingy to loving to give and looking for ways to give more and more to help advance his Kingdom.
He took me from being afraid to teach Sunday school or even say a quick prayer in class to enjoying opportunities to speak about him. Before, I was petrified, but now it’s like, “Oh look — a microphone. And I get to talk about Jesus?! You won’t be needing this back.”
I used to avoid religious talk at all costs, but he has given me the passion and the opportunity to share the gospel with countless atheists, agnostics, and people of every major religion and cult.
He took me from being selfish with my time to enjoying serving others. He gave me a passion for getting involved in the pro-life cause, which I consider the most crucial moral issue of our time. At CareNet Pregnancy center — where they aim to save lives today and for eternity — I volunteered as a counselor, teacher of pro-life reasoning classes, and board member. I also got involved in prison ministry, which has been truly rewarding.
From a career standpoint, I’ve spent over 38 years in corporate America and over 27 years as a finance and accounting executive, so I’ve accumulated a lot of workplace and financial advice that people may find helpful. I’ve also found many ways to live out my faith and maintain my employment. That is getting increasingly difficult for believers, so I’ll spend some time on that in the Field section.
You cannot experience real and sustained joy apart from the author of joy. I give Jesus all the credit for any good things done in my life or from my life, and I am eternally grateful for him letting me be a part of his plan. It is all by his grace and has nothing to do with any good deeds on my part.
So my challenge is to reflect on what God has done in your life. If you are like I used to be and haven’t trusted in Jesus as your Savior, I encourage you to get with someone as soon as possible and address whatever objections or barriers you have. I love being a Christian, and whether he gives me 30 more days of this life or 30 more years, I want to be relentless about being a good ambassador for him. I wrote this to love God by exalting his name and all he has done and love my neighbors by sharing life-changing eternal and temporal truths with them. I pray that this will benefit you in some way.
Copyright 2022
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible
Eternity Matters 