The meaning of life is to know Him and make Him known.
I was asked to speak at a Baccalaureate service for our local high school this year. For those of you not from the Midwest this is a Church service, typically the same week as the actual graduation, for the graduates who have been raised being taught to attend events out of a sense of guilt. I was of course flattered that the students would request me to speak...until later that week when a senior told me they voted Mrs. LaVine because they thought I probably wouldn't take the whole 20 minutes allotted to the speaker.
I could not for the life of me remember the last time I even attended a Baccalaureate service, much less what type of inspirational material is typically disseminated. But I started to think about ALL of the things I wish I would have known then. The list is quite long. But that's not how life works is it? We don't get to download the next level of wisdom at predetermined intervals.
Since the "I wish I knew then" line of thinking usually leads me down a road of regret, I turned my mind to a sunnier path and realized I left high school with one certain gift of understanding that many people spend their whole lives trying to uncover: The meaning of life.
I realize that sounds arrogant. "You weren't the only ideological, cocky freshman in college sure of your recipe to fix the world," you may be thinking. But in the twenty years since that discovery was gifted to me it has only become a more firm foundation in my life and I am beyond blessed to have this as the rock on which I was able to build the rest of my life.
NO idea where it came from but the little bubble characters the author used to describe theological terms reminded me of the cute little bubble dude in the Zoloft commercials and that's probably what got me hooked.
This book absolutely turned my world. The little bubble characters led me through the "Roman Road" which, again if you're not from the Midwest, is kind of a way of explaining what Jesus Christ did for us and why he needed to die on the cross.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Romans 6:23 The result of sin would be death but Jesus took that punishment for us.
Romans 5:8 God didn't wait for us to be good enough to send his son, he sent his son while we were still deep in our sin.
This would be a good place to mention that up to this point in my teen years I had a substantial number of bad decisions under my belt. I was neck deep in shame, regret, and feeling like there was really no way out (lies from the enemy of course, lies are his native language). It seemed waaaaay to good to be true that the God of the universe would forgive me, toss my sin away and give me a new start. I had grown up scared of God and believing He was hovering over the world just waiting for these worthless turds to screw up and count it against them. The idea of a God who loves me and who wants to have a relationship with me-WITH ME! That blew me away.
I told Jesus in my room that night, "I believe you and I want to know you." I was filled with a peace I hadn't yet known. The Bible started to come alive to me: things I had read sitting in the pews of our little country church that may as well have been written in Klingon now made sense! That peace and sense of hope was so overwhelming I couldn't help but talk about it--I couldn't help but confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord! I didn't have to live in the shame and regret identity believing God despised me! My eyes were also opened to the truth that God's laws for life weren't to make me miserable, they were to protect me, his precious daughter, from pain and from the flaming arrows of the enemy!
Life has NOT been perfect...not even close. I am not perfect. Life can be quite nasty actually. But I am beyond blessed regardless because, since that night in my bedroom, I've never had to wonder what this is all for. I continue to be amazed and heart-broken with how many people around me go through life without peace, unprotected from the enemy's relentless lies.
I was asked to speak at a Baccalaureate service for our local high school this year. For those of you not from the Midwest this is a Church service, typically the same week as the actual graduation, for the graduates who have been raised being taught to attend events out of a sense of guilt. I was of course flattered that the students would request me to speak...until later that week when a senior told me they voted Mrs. LaVine because they thought I probably wouldn't take the whole 20 minutes allotted to the speaker.
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| Teenagers have a way of keeping a person humble |
I could not for the life of me remember the last time I even attended a Baccalaureate service, much less what type of inspirational material is typically disseminated. But I started to think about ALL of the things I wish I would have known then. The list is quite long. But that's not how life works is it? We don't get to download the next level of wisdom at predetermined intervals.
Since the "I wish I knew then" line of thinking usually leads me down a road of regret, I turned my mind to a sunnier path and realized I left high school with one certain gift of understanding that many people spend their whole lives trying to uncover: The meaning of life.
I realize that sounds arrogant. "You weren't the only ideological, cocky freshman in college sure of your recipe to fix the world," you may be thinking. But in the twenty years since that discovery was gifted to me it has only become a more firm foundation in my life and I am beyond blessed to have this as the rock on which I was able to build the rest of my life.
TO KNOW HIM AND MAKE HIM KNOWN
One night the electricity was out in our house and I had come across a copy of a super retro book titled:
NO idea where it came from but the little bubble characters the author used to describe theological terms reminded me of the cute little bubble dude in the Zoloft commercials and that's probably what got me hooked.
This book absolutely turned my world. The little bubble characters led me through the "Roman Road" which, again if you're not from the Midwest, is kind of a way of explaining what Jesus Christ did for us and why he needed to die on the cross.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Romans 6:23 The result of sin would be death but Jesus took that punishment for us.
Romans 5:8 God didn't wait for us to be good enough to send his son, he sent his son while we were still deep in our sin.
AND THEN-THE GAMECHANGER----Romans 10:9
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead
YOU ARE SAVED!
This would be a good place to mention that up to this point in my teen years I had a substantial number of bad decisions under my belt. I was neck deep in shame, regret, and feeling like there was really no way out (lies from the enemy of course, lies are his native language). It seemed waaaaay to good to be true that the God of the universe would forgive me, toss my sin away and give me a new start. I had grown up scared of God and believing He was hovering over the world just waiting for these worthless turds to screw up and count it against them. The idea of a God who loves me and who wants to have a relationship with me-WITH ME! That blew me away.
I told Jesus in my room that night, "I believe you and I want to know you." I was filled with a peace I hadn't yet known. The Bible started to come alive to me: things I had read sitting in the pews of our little country church that may as well have been written in Klingon now made sense! That peace and sense of hope was so overwhelming I couldn't help but talk about it--I couldn't help but confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord! I didn't have to live in the shame and regret identity believing God despised me! My eyes were also opened to the truth that God's laws for life weren't to make me miserable, they were to protect me, his precious daughter, from pain and from the flaming arrows of the enemy!
Life has NOT been perfect...not even close. I am not perfect. Life can be quite nasty actually. But I am beyond blessed regardless because, since that night in my bedroom, I've never had to wonder what this is all for. I continue to be amazed and heart-broken with how many people around me go through life without peace, unprotected from the enemy's relentless lies.
To know Him and make Him known.
This is the meaning of life.
So that's what I talked about that night at the Baccalaureate service. The joke was on the kids though because there was no way, when given a microphone and the opportunity to talk about Jesus, that it would stay under 20 minutes!
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