What is going on in your life. What is taking up your time. What is occupying your thoughts?
Here are some questions that I am beginning to ask myself lately. Will it matter in five minutes? Will it matter in five days? Will it matter in five years? Will it matter in eternity?
As we grow older, there comes a realization that your time is limited on this planet. If you are like me and trying to grow to know God better, then you really do ask those questions. Is this tiff that I'm having with my sweet hubby worth it? Is the new "thing" necessary? Yes, these seem like trite things when there are tougher questions and bigger decisions but the process of examining your thought life is the same.
I have been organizing the toy room in the basement. Boxes of discarded treasures everywhere. Attached to most of them is a memory of little fingers playing with such and such and then the marker years and then came the make-up years. Oh yes, and there is the occasional bout of tears as the memories come of the time that I could have spent with those and on those people and things that mattered and wasted them on something that, today, simply doesn't matter at all.
There is not much I can do about yesterday except learn from it and not repeat it.
Jesus said, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Where is your heart? Where are your treasures? And since, we need to be storing up treasure in heaven, the question remains, will what you are doing and thinking matter in eternity?
I'm not talking about churchy (is that really a word?) things necessarily. Sometimes dog-sitting for a friend who desperately needs a vacation can be as meaningful as standing in front of a group and teaching. Both can be and should be done with the right motives and loving God and loving people always matter.
I was going through some books that I used in a company I used to work for intending to donate them and found a letter. This letter had been in this book over twenty-one years. I didn't know it was there. It was stuck in there by one of the people who used to work in the engineering department who I suppose was too shy to say anything.
It was a simple one paragraph hand written note that said, "watching how you have handled so much adversity in your life caused me to want to know the God you know.......last night I gave my life to Jesus, I just wanted you to know." Hard to believe, but I was speechless. I didn't feel anything remotely related to pride, it was humbling.
I did not directly talk to this person about Jesus. But during the time that the letter was dated was a particularly tough time in my life and everyday, I had to mentally and physically and emotionally "give it to God" over and over. If you love Jesus and you really love people, it will show.
What did I do? Managed a manufacturing plant. Sometimes what you are doing if done for the Lord matters in eternity and you may be completely unaware of the impact you are having.
Every member of the body of Christ can do what matters when we humbly seek to glorify God. Every little thing can add to the beautiful tapestry of what God is doing in the lives of those who truly delight in Him.
I love you - you matter!
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