• Today... I Choose Completeness in Christ!


    Each New Year brings myriads of goals to be attained. With each goal comes number of plans to achieve it and each plan sets a hundred of “to-do” lists just to accomplish it. Just processing all of these makes me weary… and I haven’t started any of it yet.

    Why are we doing all of these? For the people to see how completely accomplished we are? Come on, many of those who reached the pinnacles of their dreams testify that it is such a lonely life up on the top! And though schedule after schedule fills each second of each day, at the end of the day, there is but feeling of emptiness, a vacuum inside the very soul, a sense of incompleteness, craving and longing for fullness of life.  As King Solomon simply puts it, it is vanity!

    Life is a rat race!

    The world’s language is bombarded with aspirations for material completeness - a big house; a brand new car; a successful high-paying jo and gadgets galore.  We thought that with each acquisition comes completeness of life. Yet, there is no satisfaction but the desire to acquire more and more. And this yearning transforms into the spirit of materialism that creates “zombies” who are striving after nothing.

    Sad to say, even in the Christian community, the language is bombarded with ambitions for ministry completeness – a mega church with the latest technology; a successful faith-based organization with advocacy for the poor and marginalized; a famous music team that others copy; a well-sought speaker on family matters; an author of numerous books, and the list goes on. We fill our days with demands, expectations, and requirements of a life in ministry that we lose sight of the very essence why we responded to God’s love on the first place – that we might have life and have it to the full. In other words, to be complete in Christ!

    Do achievements define a person? No! It is the character!

    If we are out of focus and lack spiritual insight, our priorities are haphazard, our efforts are wasted and our labor is in vain. We may believe we are doing so many things for God but in reality are just “ministry-holics” waiting to run aground. As Edmund Chan points it out, “we are running after emptiness.”  

    It is therefore essential to assess our true condition in the light of God’s standard. Is our service caused by an selfish inner ambition or a result of our completeness in Him? Is our desire to serve triggered by competition or a response of a sinner saved by grace?

    One day, on that appointed time, we will leave these all behind. The very day we face our Maker, all the efforts, the strivings and our success stories will soon be forgotten, and the memories of our life will be like a mist that will soon disappear into nothingness. No one will remember what we did or who we are.
    So what should then be our goal for the remaining years of our lives? To completely live in God’s love and purpose, just like Christ.

    “If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.” (1 John 4: 15 – 17 NIV)

    Living completely in God’s love simply means to completely align my life to His plan and purpose. 1 John 2: 5 says, “But if anyone obeys His word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in Him.”

    I don’t want to miss this great truth! I resolve to take 2014 one day at a time, aligning each step with God’s.
    I believe He has a wonderful plan for my life and ministry. It may be serving in a small rural church; ministering as back-up singer or musician during worship; teaching toddlers in Sunday School; a prayer warrior;  a medical doctor or a nurse in the mountains of Africa or Asia;  a teacher in Timbuktu; a volunteer in an under-privilege community or  a mother caring for her young children. If this is the niche God has in His heart for me, then I am completely secure through Him and in Him.


    Therefore, I need not attempt to run the rat race and waste precious time and energy achieving nothing and going nowhere for if I am in the very center of His grace and purpose, then, I can completely rest in Him!  

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