A New View of Life

The story is told of a man who walked into a stone quarry.  "What are you doing?" he asked one of the workers there.

"Can't you see?" the man replied, "I'm chiseling stone."

And another stone cutter: "What are you doing?"

"Just trying to make a living."

A third man was asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm building a great cathedral."

On the surface, each of the workmen was doing the same thing.  Underneath, their perspective of the project was very different!

We need to see our lives from a new perspective.

You're involved at home with children.  What are you doing? Washing diapers? Caring for your family?  Trying to give them a better future than you had?  Raising up soldiers for Christ, world-changers, future blessings to the nations?

There are a lot of business people around our country who are burning their lives out.  They're neglecting their husbands, their wives, their children.  For what?  To build a business?  To become "successful"?

Dr. Walter Frank tells of a businessman in the Midwest.  On the wall of the lobby as you walk into his company there is a large map of the world.  Above the map it says, "The Great Commission is not an option.  It is a command."  On that map there are 42 lights placed in strategic locations around the world.

A visitor asked this businessman, "What is the meaning of your map?"

He replied, "Each light represents one of my field representatives.  I'm out to change my world. This business supports 42 missionaries.  They're my field representatives."

What difference could such a perspective make upon the work we do!  How differently would we approach our jobs, our families, our homes, schools, and churches!

What is God's purpose in your life?  Are you going to merely try to make a "success" for yourself and keep the blessings with which God has blessed you?  Or are you going to give them away?

God's purpose in His people of the Old Testament, in His people of the New Testament, His purpose in all the events of history--in raising peoples up and moving them from one part of the world to another; His purpose in your life is to make His name known, to reveal His glories, and to establish His kingdom among the nations.

Is that the purpose for which you will live your life?

"Whoever finds his life will lose it," Jesus said, "but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it" (Mt. 10:39).