What's
skills are you developing? Who will you be tomorrow? The harsh fact or, maybe,
the encouraging fact is that you will be tomorrow the skills you develop today.
In the movie Taken, Liam Neeson's character, Brian Mills, was
a former CIA operative. When he received a phone call from the person who took
his daughter hostage, he said in a dark, mysterious, and firm voice, "I
don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for
ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very
particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career.
Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you." Brian Mills had skills
that I don't have. Skills he acquired over a long career in the CIA. That skill
set enabled him to pursue the kidnappers of his daughter and save her.
Although
Taken was a fictional story, skills in real life work that way. We can only do things
today that we set out to learn and do yesterday. This is a theme that I regularly
repeat in these articles because it is something I need reminded of along with
it being something that we all need to grasp if things are going to be better
tomorrow than they are today.
Nothing
is more dangerous than getting caught in a rut and just going through the
motions. Our wheels just spin, getting us nowhere. We've all seen this happen to
people, churches, communities, and other organizations. When we become
comfortable or complacent in our rut, life will just pass us by. We have to strive
to be who we want to be because we will never be able to accomplish the dreams
we want to accomplish tomorrow unless we work on developing ourselves today
into a person who has the skills to do those things tomorrow.
However,
this isn't just some pop self-help idea despite being a practical concept
useful for businesses or any other organization. On the individual level, many people
imprison this idea of working toward a better tomorrow to their financial and personal
realms. It becomes only about making a better me. A better me that the world values.
We want to work hard and study hard so that we can get a good job that will
provide us with nice houses and good vacations. But on the other side of having
a good job, nice house, and good vacations is meaninglessness if that is all
there is. Those are all good things. I hope that you can all have good jobs,
nice houses, and good vacations. And I believe you can if you set out a plan,
work toward it, remain disciplined - if that is what God is calling you to.
Which
brings me to something more important than creating an environment conducive to
bringing us personal pleasure. We need to be faithful servants to God. People
who bring His kingdom here to earth as much as possible. Sometimes God calls us
to experience Him in ways that aren't immediately perceived as blessings. When
that happens, we need to be faithful. Sometimes he calls us away from the good
job, the nice house, and the good vacations. Again, when it doesn't make sense,
we still need to be faithful because it is more important that we become who
God wants us to be rather than invest our time and resources chasing after the
fleeting pleasures of this world.
Being
who God wants us to be - like the good job, nice house, and good vacations -
won't happen by accident. It's something we have to think about. It's something
we have to work on. It's something we have to pursue. We might not be saved by
works, but we can't be involved in bringing about God's will into this reality
unless we work. Unless we get busy doing the things God wants us to do.
Augustine said, "For grace is given not because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them." Too often, we are only concerned about being saved, but God has saved us for something other than just getting to heaven. It's amazing how when we are faithful to him today, he calls us to do greater things tomorrow. We can be involved in bringing God's will into this broken and fallen reality. Even if heaven were not a reality on the other side of the grave, the life God wants us to live today is far greater than selfishly pursuing the things of this world.
You
were saved for something. Are you going to get there? Are you going to realize
God's dream for your life, or are you going to miss Him and His plan for you
among all the physical things this world throws our way. The distractions. The
blessings. The trials. They are all things there to shape us into someone
spiritually better than we currently find ourselves. But they will only transform
us into someone better if we let them.
God is not going to force His
will on you. You must choose to accept it. You must decide that you are going
to invest your time into developing the skills that God will use tomorrow to
fix the broken things in this world. To comfort the hurting. To restore
justice. To help the oppressed. God's plan for this world is bigger than you or
me, but the amazing thing - or should I say the peculiar thing - about God is that we are in those plans. He is
not going to force His will on us. We must choose. We must act. A
better tomorrow depends on it.
