I looked down over my railing to see a single bright pink bloom on a hydrangea that is full of fading blossoms. Weeks before this shrub had been filled with these bright pink blossoms but they slowly started to fade away until only dying blossoms remained.
(Now, personally, I almost love the faded hydrangeas more than the bright pink ones, but there is an analogy here so let’s forget that for a moment…!)
Yesterday my husband and I attended yet another funeral. This one was especially difficult (to say the least) because we were saying goodbye to a wonderful friend who we’ve known for many, many years and knew the road ahead without him will be so very hard for his family. I think we have figured out that this is the seventh funeral we’ve been to in 2024. Some of which have been for people we have loved dearly.
Yesterday, as I was processing and thinking about all of this, my son came in to the house. I started crying because it just feels like the world can’t go on without these dear friends we have loved. And yet it does. It just continues on.
My son said, “Well, what the Bible says really is true. We are just a vapor.”
And I had to look up that verse in James 4 (vs. 14)—
Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
I’ve been reflecting on this verse. Life is but a vapor. So it’s important that we consider what really matters…
I am going to be really honest now. As you know, one of the ways I process things is to write about them. And I have shared many of my own personal struggles with you all through the years. I am not looking for praise or encouragement this morning. I am just being flat-out honest with you and sharing with you an important lesson that God continues to teach me.
You see, in the midst of all of this death and through a good bit of this year, I have struggled with my calling. It seems almost unimportant in the midst of so much pain and hurt and life-altering changes in the lives of so many families that I care about. Am I really doing what I am supposed to be doing?
But then I saw that bloom. And I realized. When it comes right down to it, is there anything more important we can do than point people to God and His Word?
A waning interest, a dying passion, an apathetic and disinterested church doesn’t change that.
I read a quote by someone the other day who said they were writing a specific book because, while they knew it would never be wildly popular, they did know there were some who needed the encouragement that would be within its pages.
I have to confess that her words really resonated with me because I, too, knew that my Learn to Discern book would hold little interest for a worldly church. But I went forward with it because I hope that God has used it in someone’s life to draw them into a deeper walk with Him.
I saw a quote this morning that talked about how important that we remember that all glory belongs to God. As soon as we are searching for our own glory, we have lost much of our effectiveness for God’s plans and purposes.
We believers know this is true in theory. But the desire for God’s glory with no interest in our own glory is an arduous journey for most of us. As in so many other areas, we know the truth and we want to live out the truth, but to actually do this is a struggle.
But what a reminder all of this death has been to me personally that our own glory is irrelevant in the scope of life. I am but a vapor, as are you. Only what’s done for Christ will last.
And through this past year, God has been reminding me that one of the main things we can do as believers is to stand for biblical TRUTH—to be that bright pink bloom—among a church steeped in apostasy and a world that is spiritually dead. Eternity and souls are at stake and little else really matters.
And, while part of the way I do this is by writing on a public platform, you all have your own opportunities to stand for truth. Some of you, like me, use social media to point people to the truth. Some of you teach Sunday school or lead Bible Studies. Some of you volunteer in Christians organizations that have lost sight of God’s Word or serve on church boards that are moving away from biblical truth. Others of you work among professing believers that have no fruit whatsoever. While still others of you have opportunities that come through your unregenerate or unfruitful families.
For most of us, it isn’t just one opportunity or one arena in which we are given opportunity to point people to biblical truth. If we really believe the Bible is true, then our desire to share its truths with others should encompass all of our life. It should be more important than our own desires and dreams. God is our portion. He is our ALL. Do we live like that? Do others know we believe that?
What a challenge to consider, right? Or am I the only one??
I guess the question for us all is: In what way am I being that bright pink bloom of biblical truth in the world where God has sovereignly placed me?
We are not responsible for the response. We are only responsible to speak up. Oh, that we may all have the boldness, the courage, and the love for our fellow man that is greater than our love for self that we need in order to do this. No matter what the response and no matter how difficult, may we continue to stand for what is right and true, according to God’s Word.
Of course, we can’t do this unless we actually know the Word of God, so, as always, it goes back to that basic. We must read and study the Word of God, which is our only anchor in this world of lies and which is a blessed gift and the only means given by God to transform our lives and to grow us to look more like Jesus.
AMEN!