What's the Point?

You may be asking yourself, "What's the point?" I work, I raise my children, I care for the home, but I don’t really feel like I have any big or lasting impact in this world.

It has been suggested that the efforts of Ezra and Nehemiah would not have been possible had it not been for the role of Esther in biblical history. She played a foundational part in the plan of God to return his people to their home. In her imperfection God made her what she needed to be for the "such a time as this" she was living in. And what she did with her life during that time paved the way for the impact Ezra and Nehemiah would have on the people of God.

The mother of John Newton, the ex-slave trader and writer of the hymn Amazing Grace, died when John was just a child. Yet the seed of faith that she planted in her son never left him; it grew into a great faith that influenced and impacted many. 

John the Baptist prepared a way for the Savior of the world. Without doubt, John had his place in God's salvation plan, yet he humbly realized that the story of the long-awaited Savior was not about him. He was willingly submitted to the truth that he must decrease while Jesus increased (and still increases through the Church).

Can I ask you to consider that your role may not be to change the world, or to impact it in some spectacular way, but rather to prepare the way for those who will? A son, a daughter, a friend - you just don’t know the foundation that is being laid in the lives of others by your godly influence.

There are times when God works silently. He calls and then seems to leave the room, while that calling is brewing in his servant like a cup of coffee. Consider David, anointed as king of Israel, pursued by a strong enemy, hiding in a cave. "What a calling!" we would say looking back with full knowledge of how his story was to end. Yet while those cave times in David's life may have seemed pretty pointless, they were not the end of his story. We can now see that it was not yet over for David - God would one day reveal David's role in his plan.

You may not have kingship or queenship in your future, but remember, God has called you to a task - he has placed you and is using you to bring his kingdom to your corner of this earth. How small or how great that corner is, really isn’t our concern - that lays in the hands of the Master Architect. What matters is that you continue in the grace of God and grow up into him before those around you.

What's the point? Well, you may not be able to answer that question now but know this: there is no such thing as a pointless life for an adopted child of God.