Living An Unfinished Life

Let's talk about how we respond and interact with this Man, the Creator.

Let me also preface all this with the statement that we are all at different places in our walk and becoming more like Christ is something that is a continual process.                                           (continual meaning I'm there yet either)

With that being said, knowing God is not enough.

A couple years ago I spent most of the day sitting in a coffee shop listening to worship music and simply being (something I try to make time to do often). And during my frequent attention-deficit-disorder-scannings-of-the-people-places-and-things around me, I noticed a display with books about the Kennedys. One book about his life was open to a page that had the phrase “An Unfinished Life”. I kept staring back at this phrase transfixed by the idea of living an unfinished life when we aren't dead yet.

Hear me out. Knowing God isn't enough. I could know God, go to a weekly worship service, spend time in the word and it would be living an unfinished life.

I remember also seeing a coffee cup quote around that same time (I get distracted easily, this I know) that said “just when the catepillar thought it was all over,it became a butterfly”. At this point I know I must be losing you with the Kennedys and a book store and a coffee cup and a catepillar but stay with me and I promise I'll make sense (or I'll just delete this before I post it). Romans 1:21 says:

 “for although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him because they became futile in their thinking...”

Let me translate that scripture into the MCWversion:

“even though they knew God, they weren't aware of Him in everything. They lived an unfinished life; thus encountering God only at certain times rather than in everything; and their mindset became stagnant, without growth, stunted and unfruitful”

We know of God but are we cognizant of Him around us? Would we hear if He asked us to pay for the car behind us in a drive thru line? Or if He prodded our heart to pray with a person in the other aisle in Walmart?

Sometimes I forget just how great and awesome He is and how much I should be acknowledging Him in every area of my life. Are we like the catepillar and become so distraught with how things look at the moment that we don't trust that He won't leave us a caterpillar. You haven't reached your full potential. God won't leave you where you are if you are acting in full obedience to His word.

 When we limit God to an encounter in morning quiet time or a weekly worship service, we miss all that He has to say and wants to do in and through us throughout the day. Thus, we are walking around living an unfinished life. 

Acknowledging God isn't just for our benefit or gain in fact a great bit is just for Him. God is a relationship being, He desires friendship with us. He created us because He wanted to, He wanted relationship with us. (Ephesians 1:5)

God doesn't live in your morning quiet times. God doesn't live in a church a building. He lives in you and in me. When you finish reading this and go grab a cup of coffee in the kitchen or brush your teeth in the bathroom, God doesn't say “alright friend! See you tomorrow, same time same place!”. No. We are in a continual conversation with Him if we choose to be.

If the catepillar would have thought God only lived in a certain time or certain circumstance or certain moment then he never would have held on to see the transformation that which he didn't see coming.

Today I pray that you won't miss out on what God desires to whisper to you THROUGHOUT the day. I like to think that there are little signs of His love and direction that He sends in various avenues throughout the day, these I refer to as “post-it notes”. So I pray that you be open and aware of little post-it notes that God wants to offer you throughout the day. Enjoy the difference in your days when you choose to hear what God has to say to you throughout the day and not just in your quiet time!

“But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once

were far away have been brought near

through the blood of Christ.”

Ephesians 2:13