Redeeming the Dash
John 10:10
Men’s Breakfast Devotional
Life in all of its complexities and all of its chaos is boiled down to very few things. Sooner or later our lives will be marked by two numbers, two dates to be precise. The first of those dates we all know well, our birthday, our first day. It was the day we were the gleam in our parent’s eye. The day we entered the world and started this journey we call life. From that first day we learned to walk, we learned to talk and learned a whole host of other things. From that first day we experienced the realities of life both good and bad. Those experiences have brought us to where we are in our journey. Those events helped to make us and shape us into the person we are today.
The second date is still unknown to us. It lies somewhere in the future beyond our limited knowledge and waits for us to arrive. The second date is our final day. It is the day that we exit this world. It is the day we leave the confines of earth for the comfort of eternity. The final day is one of sadness and sorrow, of joy and release. The final day is exactly that final. There are no do overs, no recycling and no comebacks; final means final.
These two dates often mark tombstones and become the benchmarks of our life. In between these two dates is one small dash that measures an inch or two. That small dash represents everything else that makes up our lives from the first day until the final day. The dash is all of our triumphs, all of our defeats, all of our battles, all of our failures and all of our successes. Everything we are, everything we do, everything we live for comes down to one little dash.
All of this leads me to an important question: what are you doing with your dash? How are you living the days you have been given? Some people live very conscious of their days and others are busy in the midst of their days that they seldom realize. The rush of life happens and things fly by and people get lost in the blur.
I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. John 10:10
Jesus makes it clear that His mission is to give us life and not just any life, life that is full. Jesus wants us to have life that is abundant beyond our ability to comprehend. He desires to give us the very best for our lives. Jesus did not die to just give us life, He died to give us the best life possible. Jesus did not die to secure an average, mediocre or boring life. He gave His life to give us a life that we could never have on our own. He died so we could have the kind of life that He had.
Thief Jesus
Emptiness: Steal Fullness
Death: Kill Life
Hell: Destroy Heaven
The contrast between the kind of life we have on our own and the kind of life we have in Christ. There is no comparison. We often make the mistake believing that just because we have breath that we are alive. The truth is that there are a lot of people who have a pulse but have no idea how to live. Just because you’re breathing doesn’t mean that you’re alive.
How do we live the life that Jesus died to give us?
1. We seek Him
We will never be able to get through life on our own
We need what only Jesus can give us
We need to never stop pursuing a deeper walk with Him
2. We serve others
There is no better way to love people than to serve them
Look for opportunities to reach out and help people
We serve Jesus by serving those around us
3. We share Jesus
We share the good news of our lives with people every day
We need to share the best news of our lives
There is no more loving thing you can do than to share Jesus
In the end it all comes back to the dash - Seize the day
