What's It Going to Take?
What is it going to take?
What is it going to take to become the person that you have always wanted to be?
What is it going to take to leave your pain and regrets in the past, so you are fully able to embrace the joy that is distinctive to today?
What is it going to take to live with fearless enthusiasm and heartfelt passion?
What is it going to take?
You know … I believe that “something” threatens to hold all of us back from living in our destinies.
That “thing” can be something minor or something massive … but whatever its size … it holds us back just the same.
For some people it might be fear … or worry … or shame … or regret … or insecurities … or sin … or disappointment … or anger … or … or … or …
Do you see your “thing” in that cancerous and ominous list?
What is it going to take?
Often, when I am in a public situation, I find myself looking into the faces of the people who are within my view.
In airports … in restaurants … in a hotel lobby … on my daily walk … I peer intently into the eyes of strangers.
I cannot escape the emptiness that defines their very countenance.
I watch the insecure body language of these unknown yet familiar people.
I hear their hollow laughter and look into their languishing eyes.
As I study these folks in their futile pursuit of desolate values and deceitful choices … my heart is broken.
Absolutely broken.
I think of the person that God created each one of them to be.
I can only imagine what God had in store for each of them … when He thought of their lives long before the beginning of eternity.
“My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.” – Psalm 139:15 & 16
Was one of these nameless people created to discover the cure for cancer? Instead, he or she now has needle tracks on precious arms.
Was one of them created to be an astronaut? Instead, that person has settled for a life that has been frustratingly earthbound by compromises and mediocrity.
Was there a face in the anonymous crowd who was created to write books that would touch thousands of hearts?
Or to write the worship songs of a generation?
Or to lead a nation?
What’s it going to take?
As much as I would love to control the lives of the random folks who walk around the boundaries of my life … the truth is … I can only control my life.
I can only control my choices.
I can only choose my own destiny.
However … the question remains … what is it going to take for me to live a life worthy of the plans that God has for me?
Is that even possible?!
You know … I happen to believe that it is possible.
I am convinced that it is indeed possible for a man or a woman to partner with God in living a life so grand that heaven roars with approval.
Now … I certainly don’t believe it is possible to live a perfect life … but I know that I know it is possible to live an extraordinary life.
David wasn’t perfect … but he had a heart after God’s own heart.
Abraham wasn’t perfect … yet still he counted the stars with God.
Jacob wasn’t perfect … but he chose to worship his way into eternity.
I am not perfect … but I will enthusiastically choose to pursue God!
I am not perfect … but I love to dream with the Father!
I am not even close to being perfect … but I will worship regardless of what my circumstances seem to be.
So … what is it going to take?!
Perhaps what it takes is for a person, made in the image of God, to pursue the heart of the Father with every fiber of one’s being.
Maybe what it takes … is to dream with God and to have no regard for human limitations.
Maybe what it takes to live with the very fingerprint of heaven upon one’s ordinary soul requires a commitment to worship.
And maybe … just maybe … what those frustrated faces in the crowd are longing for is to watch somebody else live well.
Perhaps what will encourage a stranger to embrace a seed of greatness is simply my decision … or your decision … to live a life of heavenly proportions.
Is that all it takes?!
It takes the acknowledgement that we were made for so much more than this.
You and I were made for the plans and purposes of God at our moment in history.
“The glory of God is a man fully alive!” – Ireneaus
You and I were made to pursue God fully … to dream without limits … and to worship extravagantly! Those daily choices are the building blocks of what it takes to live a glorious and historic life!
That’s what it takes.
I can do what it takes.
I can do it because He lives in me.
I can do it because I was made in His image.
I can do it because David did it … and Abraham did it … and Jacob did it.
I can do it because Esther did it … and Hannah did it … and Mary did it.
I can do it because I know what it takes.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:10
Thanks for listening to my heart this week. As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me. And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!