There sits an empty vessel.
Void of passion and direction;
full of complacency and apathy.
Desirous of something or someone –
to give it a push or a pull.
There it sits: idle.
We are not designed to sit still, but so often that is exactly what we do; never realizing our potential to be all that we were made to be.
This all occurred to me in service this morning as my pastor taught on spiritual gifts. Speaking from the quintessential passage 1 Corinthians 12: 12 -13, he invoked a critical visual for us.
For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Everyone has natural gifts, but there are some who are given supernatural gifts. That are only given to us from the Holy Spirit, Galatians 5: 22-26
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Sure, many non-believers exhibit these traits as well, but the difference is, for whom does it serve, their selves? They cannot control how long anything remains, how then do their acts have anything more than an insignificant and ephemeral impact? And if their intention is to have no lasting impression, then, what was the point?
So, as a Christian, I want to be a vessel filled those fruit and influenced, but not for my own gain- rather to give glory to Jesus Christ. For He alone, as God, has the ability to make mine a legacy lasting for eternity. He has desired that I be close to Him and I stand in this truth and seek His eternity.
With the Internet primarily being a social medium now, some are predicting that we are in the post-Information Age. I wonder sometimes, what is out here on the interwebs that will have a lasting impact– for eternity? I remember in my college sociology class, almost a decade ago, there was a prediction that shortly after “the information era” we would see heightened spiritual awareness. What does that mean for this highly-connected generation?
Do not be idle. Do not let idleness take you. Don’t let theories and opinions rule you. Seek truth and realize for what you were truly made and make an impact.