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So many opportunities. So little time. The invitations keep coming even though your calendar is already full. You think you have it all figured out and then someone shows you something that makes you question it all. It becomes a challenge not to feel overwhelmed.

How do you decide what is important? How do you decide where to invest your time, your money, your self? How do you decide how to live your life?

These are the decisions that define who you are and the legacy that you will leave; but when you are honest with yourself, you have to admit that most of these decisions are made on a whim, at the spur of the moment, based on how you are feeling at the time. Unfortunately, that combination leads to choices that you often come to regret.

When Matthew describes the Jesus’ life in Galilee (Matthew 3:23), he says that Jesus spent his time doing three things: teaching, preaching, and healing. Jesus’ teaching shows his concern for understanding. Jesus’ preaching shows his concern for commitment to the values of God’s kingdom.  Jesus’ healing shows his concern for wholeness.

I wonder how our lives would change if we based our decisions about the things we do on whether they led to greater understanding, deeper commitment, and authentic wholeness. My hunch is that our world would come to look much more like the kingdom of heaven.

You Are Mine

A few days ago you were sitting with your friends and family around a stack of gifts waiting for someone to read your name and hand a brightly wrapped package to you. As you tore through the paper to see what was inside, perhaps you were thinking, “I hope this is something I want to keep.” If it was something that you really wanted or needed—and something that you now hoped you could use for a long time; your next thought may have been, “How can I make sure other people know it is mine?”

Some gifts may already be marked with your name or initials. They may be stitched through, engraved in, or written on. You may belong to a family where everyone has their own color; so even if everyone in the family got the same item, you know which one is yours because it’s your color.

If it’s not already marked, then you may just pull out a permanent marker and write your name on it. You may scratch your initials in some inconspicuous place. Some folks put their most cherished gifts in a case made especially for them. I make a practice of pulling the label off the package and sticking inside the gift so there is no question that it is mine.

Campers write their names in their clothes. Workers write their names on their tools. Travelers write their names on their luggage. Students write their names in their books. When you value the things you have, you find a way to make sure the world knows they are yours.

God sent Jesus into the world to let you know that he loves and values you. Consider these ways God reveals this love across the ages: “The Lord your God chose you to be his own treasured people” (Deuteronomy 7:6). “The Lord treasures the people who honor him, the people who wait for his faithful love” (Psalm 147:11). “You are precious in my eyes, you are honored, and I love you” (Isaiah 43:4).

When Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan, “A voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son whom I dearly love; I find happiness in him’” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus commanded his disciples to baptize new believers so they would know whose they are; and, that God finds happiness in them, delights in them,  cherishes them, values them, treasures them, loves them, too.

Remember your baptism and be thankful!