What Are We Missing?

July 18, 2023

1 Peter 1:17-21, The Message  – You call out to God for help and he helps—he’s a good Father that way. But don’t forget, he’s also a responsible Father, and won’t let you get by with sloppy living.

Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately—at the end of the ages—become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.

                I didn’t know what I had growing up.  I had two parents that loved each other and loved me.  We weren’t wealthy, but we always had enough.  There was always a roof over my head and food on the table.  When I outgrew clothes (which happened often), new clothes were purchased.  The reality is that for almost all of my life, I’ve had more than I needed. 

                It wasn’t until I started school that I began to realize that others did not have what I had.  Some of my friends’ parents were divorced.  I remember spending the night at a friends house and being shocked that they didn’t have air conditioning.  I didn’t understand why my classmate Amy had shoes that were falling apart. 

                Then as a youth, I started going on mission trips and encountered people who had almost nothing of the abundance I had always taken for granted.  It made me really grateful for the basics of life and for the people who had always made sure I had them.  It also made me realize that God was the Primary One that had blessed me.  Furthermore, God was inviting me to respond in service to the mission of God’s Kingdom.  It took a while, but that invitation eventually led to me becoming a pastor.  I now don’t take credit for that decision.  It was all God.  It was always all God.  I just didn’t realize it until I was full-grown man. 

                Peter is trying to convey to us this truth.  Your life. . . my life. . . all our lives are ALWAYS all God.  I love Eugene Peterson’s translation of verse 17; “Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God.”  Too many people, even professing Christians, go through life never realizing what God is doing in them, around them, and in the larger world.  As people who are chosen by God for a divine purpose, this is no way to live, Peter says. 

                Spend some time today looking for the fingerprints of God on the life you’ve had before this moment – the people that just showed up, the people who have always been there, the circumstances you never noticed before, the patterns you’ve always ignored.  Move toward that deep God-consciousness that Peter alludes to here.  Find the life that really is life.

Question:  What has God done for you that you have never noticed before?

Prayer:  Lord, You are everywhere and in everyone.  I often strain to see that if at all.  Give me Your eyes that will lead me toward a deep consciousness of Your activity. Amen.

Prayer Focus:  Pray for those in hospice care right now.

Song:  Give Me Your Eyes – Brandon Heath