To not waste this life...

I've been so lazy and yet seemingly busy the past few weeks.
After 4 filled weeks of VBS, straight into 1 week of twin toddlers... 1 week of Mum+Aunties... this week has finally been a more restful week.

I'd like to say that I have been productive or that I have at least been intentional about deepening familial bonds...

"And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,giving thanks to God the Father through Him." Colossians 3:17

This, this verse shared with me by an amazing sister I met at VBS, reminded me and kept bugging me to stay  focused.
And "Don't Waste your life" by John Piper has been stirring in me a passion - "a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples"...

“If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full. This is not a book about how to avoid a wounded life, but how to avoid a wasted life. Some of you will die in the service of Christ. That will not be a tragedy. Treasuring life above Christ is a tragedy” (p. 10).

Thanks be to God that our lives here need not be wasted but are part of His great purpose!
By myself, my own selfish desires, I'd have loved to make much of my life... but by His grace, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).

It's about making much of Him -and doing it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, bearing witness of Christ with the help of the Holy Spirit - proclaiming the excellencies of God who brought us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:20).

Because Jesus paid it all.

And yet, if I continue to coast through life being a "good Christian", or remain enslaved in my attempts to make much of my life ("so that I can glorify God with it all"), not only is my light, my strength, my song not Him... BUT isn't it that I'm holding God and what He has done for me on the Cross in contempt?
How can I, when HE "endured the cross, despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2)... He our King despised the shame of the cross, the costly price which we sinners should have paid.

I tend to fall back into the wrong motives of working hard and try way too hard to be useful and win the approval of others, meet or go above the expectations of others. But God really doesn't need any of this from me. God doesn't need me to win this or that trophy or medal because He promised to give His children the crown of righteousness, and that we be clothed with Christ, with His joy and love.

I don't have to go back into time, or dwell upon my "what if's", because it doesn't matter to Him and so it shouldn't matter to me. Perfect wisdom belongs to our God and He is in perfect control - the good and the seemingly bad (which He graciously turns for good, as John Piper puts it).

So may these reminders once again renew my desire that "to live is Christ, to die is gain". To not waste my life through Jesus Christ.