Alive

So... I turned 54 this past week - kind of a weird number/age. 50 is significant and brought all sorts of thoughts about what's next, what have I accomplished etc.. 60 is big - I think. Even next year - 55 has a ring to it like "I can't drive 55!" or the lure of being able to order off the Denny's 55+ menu - can't wait!

   But 54 ... it sounds so routine, nondescript, insignificant ... bland. Now that's a word I would not want to describe myself with! The dictionary says it means "pleasantly agreeable, nonirritating, indifferent - all passive words. To me it points to just passing time, lacking any impact, without a definable purpose - lacking in life, color and passion.

I hate to say it but that could often describe me  - perhaps 54 is not only my age but is a fitting description of what I have allowed my life to become!

On Sunday we will be unpacking Ephesians 2:4-6  "even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ..." Romans 6 says that we were raised to "walk in newness of life!" To have been made alive is to be freed from sin, it is to have purpose and focus in His kingdom, it is to be brought in to share in His work and His life, it is to be brought from the dead so that color, passion, creativity and a fresh vision for the day can be generated by the Lord through my life! Why would I ever embrace blandness? I am not altogether sure but I think it slowly creeps into our days, sapping them of vitality, dulling our minds and creating the deception that this is what life is.

It isn't! As Ephesians 2:10 reminds us - "we are His workmanship (masterpieces) created in Christ Jesus for good works ..." Created for purpose, focus, wonder, mystery - to be pulled into the eternal working of our creator as He continues it in  the midst of our everyday activities. His calling to me at 54 is "I have made you alive - live!" "I have prepared you - step forward!" ""I am in all your days ahead - embrace them with gratitude, expectation and delight."

So - Lord, a year from now when I am eating breakfast at  Denny's - may I have learned to see Your Life anew - press me to keep me alive to the moments You give and do whatever You need to do to rescue me from my own blandness. amen