Jim Elliott once wrote, "Wherever you are, be all there. Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God." Elliott, a missionary to Ecuador was martyred at the age of 29 by the Huaorani Indians, but, boy, he surely lived his life to the hilt to the glory of God. His life has impacted countless numbers of Christians--including me--and how I thank the Lord for such a godly example of living full out for the Savior.
Yesterday one of our pastors, Russ Andrews, gave a wonderful sermon entitled, "Finish the Race Well!" Isn't that what we all desire and hope? I don't want to limp or stagger across the finish line... or worse, stumble and fall before I even get there. Yet how many Christians do we see and read about who started so well, with such great energy and promise, and then fell prey to some besetting sin or moral collapse or catastrophic failure... or perhaps just some sad, slow decline that left them embittered, indifferent, or ineffective. O Lord, preserve us from such a fate! Help us to cross the finish line with our heads still held high, looking ahead, and our legs still churning with strength and resolve. We don't want to just finish "somehow" but triumphantly!
And I'm not just talking about some splashy, successful finish. Or finishing with a pot of gold and a shiny accomplishment medal around our neck. I mean finishing strong in Him. Finishing faithful to the end. Finishing full of hope in our glorious future. Finishing fully content that we have given our all, given our best for His glory every single day. Falling and failing, sure, but always getting up one more time than we fall, and asking Him to cleanse us and redeem us and use us again. And He always will--it's called grace and it is glorious.
You can't finish well if you wallow in your past failures. My flesh sometimes tends to indulge in those pity parties of "I can't do anything right. See I messed up again." If we want to finish well, however, we can't look back. We must simply ask God to enable us to learn from the past but then look to the future and trust that He will guide and enable and strengthen us for whatever is ahead. In Elliott's words, "Wherever you are, be all there"--we can't "be all there" if we are wallowing in self-pity or self-condemntation over the past.
Nor can we "be all there" and "live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God" if we are preoccupied with worries about the future. Anxiety steals the hope and joy God longs for us to experience as we fully live each day. Fretting robs us of the once in a lifetime opportunity to live the abundant life each present moment. We simply cannot do both at the same time--it's regret and fret or fully live today.
Nope, it's either be all there and live it to the hilt right now or it's wring your hands over the past and worry over the future. Gee, which one sounds better? Any sane person would choose living fully in this precious, never to repeated present moment and experience the exhilaration and joy that God gives to His children as they walk with Him and fix their eyes upon Him. Yet, sadly, how many of us choose the latter? We forfeit peace and joy and adventure for discouragement, anxiety, and boredom. (After all, what could more boring and life-sucking than living in a regret-filled past or an uncertain, anxious future?)
How I love how Paul puts it!: "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own. Brothers, I don not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil.3 12-14)
Lord, help us to forget the past, cease fretting over the future and persevere in pressing on as we fix our eyes upon You every single day. Help us to "live to the hilt every situation" we believe to be Your will, all to Your glory, all by Your grace. We trust and thank You that You are running the race with us and will enable us to cross the finish triumphantly and faithfully. To God be the glory forever.
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