Living Life Purposefully

I've heard a lot about living life purposefully in the last year or so. Or maybe I've heard it all along but I'm paying closer attention now. It seems like every day I live, it becomes clearer and clearer to me that there are things that just don't matter much and other things that will matter forever. Sometimes we're in tune to that, and sometimes we're not.

We talked in our small group last night about what brought us to the point that we knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives near God. I don't know if you would find the same statistics in every group, but seven out of eight of us realized how desperately we needed God in the midst of crisis. If you let it, crisis can really give you clarity.

Remember 9/11? Churches were filling up. Have you ever attended the funeral of a young person? People are acutely aware of the things that really matter. Crisis tends to bring you to the place where you realize you have nowhere to turn but to God. You can't fix it. No one can help you. What you've done all your life no longer works.

Although those times are generally some of the most painful we could ever experience, they can also become the most profound. It is at those times that many realize there is one... and only One... who can help us. There is only one who can comfort us. There is only one who can see us through to a clearer and more meaningful life. And the best part of all?

After all this time, He's standing there with open arms.