This is why I live...

Do you ever have moments in life when you feel like you were created for nothing else but that moment? Do you ever just pause and look at who you are and think...WOW...I have the ability to burn for something, to fight for something, to love something with all of my heart. I have talked to several people recently who have stumbled across their "Esther" moment as I like to call it. The moment where they can say "For such a time as this I was born!" I think it is for that feeling that we live and wake up each day, somehow hoping that somewhere along our waking moments we will feel alive. Because surely the One who created us had a specific intent in mind. He didn't just throw us together as an afterthought, He created a passion, He created a dream, He created a purpose and then...after all that planning...He created us. It is our joy in life to search out the distinct mystery of what catches us on fire. And yes, the general answer is JESUS, but what leads us to Jesus in our daily lives? And so i began thinking....

Someone could be reading a poem, a book, a newspaper article and after their eyes glance away from that page, something burns in them. They long to write, they ache to put pen to paper because what other way can they express the greatest mystery of His love! Can you change the world with a pen and a paper? Perhaps that was the Creators intent in making you a writer...

Someone could be taking pictures and upon seeing the unfolding beauty before them know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they were called to capture His beauty. He has given them eyes to see purity in people, majesty in creation, and delight in life. Could you change the world if you could capture that? Perhaps that was the Creator's intent in making you a photographer...

Someone could be sitting on the bus, going to school and out of nowhere start a theological debate with the stranger on his right. The orator marvels for a split second at how eloquently the words flow out of his mouth with really no previous thought. Could you change the world with the words you speak from the thoughts you think? Perhaps that was the Creators intent in making you a politician...

Someone could be watching a movie, listening to the radio, or mindlessly humming a familiar tune when they stop...and for a moment they wonder just what it would take to turn the entertainment system of America back to Him. The person thinks, just for a moment, that they can sing, surely they can act...what is indeed stopping them. Can you change the world if you can sing the right note or memorize the right lines? Perhaps that was the Creators intent in making you an actor or a singer....

Someone could be tutoring their little brother in math. The numbers just come to them, as easy as it is to breathe. But the beauty is not found in the numbers themselves, but in the revealing of how they function to someone who could not see it before. And this person longs to reveal Gods creation to others, and they can. Can you change the world by teaching little boys and little girls their ABC's and 123's. Perhaps that was the Creators intent in making you a teacher....

Someone could be walking by a little boy on the side of the road and immediately tears fall down their face. For no explainable reason their heart breaks for this little boy. But that is what their heart was created to break for...the fatherless, the needy, the insecure, the hopeless. Could you change the world if you restored one heart at a time? Perhaps that was the Creators intent in making you a pastor...

So...have you found your Esther moment yet. The moment where you realize you were created to burn for something. For someone. But a fire can't burn unless there is kindling, unless there is a match. What is the fuel to your fire?

Mine is that ability to create something out of nothing. Its the ability to take a piece of paper and turn it into a young girls heart or a teenage boys dream. Its the ability to make paint cry out the name of Jesus and make led and ink declare His glory filling the earth. Thats what He has given me. Could I change the world if I drew the right picture? Perhaps that was the Creators intent in making me an artist....

We were created to live for something. For someone actually. How do we live. Do we live as a people on fire or do we live as a people always cold because we can't find the right matches.

Are you a burning one....