Mile markers along the side of the road can be very helpful – particularly when you are on an extended journey. They can help you keep track of where you are in your journey and the progress you have made. They can provide you with a reference point for something you saw or experienced along the way. They can sometimes help you get a better view of what may be coming up ahead. And they can help you keep the longer view versus the myopic view of only that which is immediately in front of you.
Mile markers are helpful in all kinds of ways – but not only on physical journeys. Mile markers can also be very helpful on our spiritual journey. This week has marked two notable mile markers for me. One was 24,000, and the other was 29.
i have now been alive more than 24,000 days! Yes, i celebrated the 24,000th day since my birth this week! No cards or balloons, please! That’s what the COVID-19 quarantine will do for you – cause you to explore the most random of things! That revelation prompted my son-in-law to pull up the timeanddate.com site and check the equivalent for the other members of our family. i will let them tell their own discoveries – but i will tell you that my youngest grandson was celebrating his 283rd day – which, of course, made a big impression on him!
i am not going to compute the hours, minutes or seconds equivalent of 24,000 days because my fingers and toes will not allow me to count that high! But … i am mindful that each and every one of them is a gift from the Lord. And i don’t know how many days – if any – still lie ahead in my journey, but i will trust that God has ordered my days however many there may be – from beginning to end! He knew what each and every one of those days will hold for me – just as He does for you – from before we were born.
We are children of the sovereign and almighty God. He created us for His purpose. Long before we were born, He knew the plans He has for us – plans to give us a future and a hope – and He still knows! (Jeremiah 29:11) That’s why the writer of proverbs could say with confidence, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
My second mile marker this week was that i am now 29! Now some of the math whizzes have already confirmed that there is no way i can be over 24,000 days old and 29 years old! And you would be correct. However, the “29 years” represents my “re-birth-day”. Don’t let my gray hair and follically-challenged head fool you. In “re-birth” years, i’m a millennial! On this day in 1991, i surrendered my life, and fully entered into a personal love relationship with my Lord Jesus Christ.
Many of you know my story. i had “prayed a prayer” when i was six years old at a Bible Club meeting in the basement of my grandparents’ home. i had “walked the aisle” at a citywide evangelistic crusade when i was ten. Soon after, my pastor “baptized” me at the church my family was attending. To the best of my knowledge, i had “done” everything that i was supposed to “do” to know that i was “saved”.
There was only one flaw in my thinking. i had missed the whole truth of the gospel! You see, i thought the gospel was all about me! Don’t misunderstand me – i knew that God had paid the ultimate sacrifice for my sin through the death, burial and resurrection of His Son. And i knew that it was a sin debt that i could not pay. But you see, i viewed it as all about me – my sins being forgiven, and my eternal destiny being assured. Now don’t misunderstand me, both of those statements are truly by-products of salvation – but they are not God’s primary purpose. God’s ultimate purpose is not about us – it’s about Him! His purpose and plan for our lives is for us to walk in a love relationship with Him – expressing our worship of Him and being used by Him to bring glory to His name.
Think of the picture that John describes in the Book of Revelation – as he describes the multitude from every tribe, tongue and nation gathered around the throne of God worshiping Him. Look in the book of Genesis – before sin entered the picture. The Lord God walked about the garden with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening. It was a picture of a loving relationship between the Creator and His creation. A relationship that was destroyed by sin. A relationship that Jesus came to restore – and to restore not solely for the hereafter – but also for the here and now.
Jesus made the way – not so we would just pray a prayer and move on – He made the way for us to walk in the fullness of the relationship for which God created us – to love Him, to honor Him, to worship Him, to glorify Him – with our whole heart, soul and mind. And yet somehow i had cheapened it, as if it represented some type of eternal life insurance policy for me – redeemable upon my death.
On the days leading up to May 26, 1991, the Lord had been opening my eyes to the truth that i had settled for so much less than He was offering. i had leaned on my own understanding and settled for a consumer’s imitation of the truth. i had settled for worthless talk and godless behavior. i had settled for a consumer’s Jesus who saved me from what i deserved but was okay with me living my life my own way as i saw fit.
But, on that day, the Lord brought me face-to-face with the truth that “if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.” (2 Timothy 2:21) God had created us to be vessels for His honor, sanctified and useful by Him for His purpose and prepared, as we walk with Him, to be used by Him for every good work. He created us to walk with Him – not for our purpose but for His. He saved us from our sin so that we could walk with Him – yes, in the cool of the evening – but also in the heat of the day and the darkness of night. He saved us to worship Him – not with a portion of our being – but with our all. So, on that day twenty-nine years ago, i turned it all over to Him – and on that day (as Jesus described it to Nicodemus in John chapter 3), i became reborn.
i share this with you as one who is grateful to my LORD that He didn’t give up on me. He actively pursued me – and in many ways, He still does. Because i know that apart from Him i can do nothing. i really had nothing to give Him – nothing to bring Him. It’s all by His grace. So, on this day, with those two mile markers clearly in my view, i just want to thank Him – praise Him – and worship Him through this feeble attempt to express my love for Him.
And my hope and prayer is – no matter the mile markers that are in your view right now – you too can look at them knowing that you too have come to that place – trusting the One who knows the plans He has for you – plans to give you a future and a hope!
Photo by Jake Blucker on Unsplash