So many people I meet with are not satisfied with where they are in life. Since I work mostly with 30 and 40-year-olds I come across heaps of people who are waiting for the magic turn of the key that will usher in the life they always wanted. Many feel that they have missed out on someone or something that should have been their destiny. Others wonder if their divine destination will ever present itself.
This waiting and wanting can be crippling. The reason for this is that it is very difficult to live inside out for God today when your eyes are set on the future or the past. Does this mean that we are not to desire good things for our life. No, it does not. The problem is when we allow our desire for the future to devalue who we are in the present. So how do we live well in the present while hoping for the future of our dreams?
David is one of the Bibles greatest examples of this. In the pages of 1st Samuel we find the story of a boy who was anointed King, but spent years developing and leading a nation before he would ever where the crown. This ability, the ability to be the person who he was called to be in the present is what set David apart. David acted like the king he was long before he ever wore the crown. Even though David understood his divine calling, he did not allow it to cloud his present.
This fresh Biblical perspective is so far removed from how I have lived much of my life. For years I have sought after a crown or a pulpit that would bring meaning and worth to me. Once reaching this plateau I believed I would then be released into my authentic life. This imaginary life was the one I wanted and longed for. It was the life that had value. It was the life where people would finally discover how important I was to God’s cosmological plan. Give me a break! Thankfully God has freed me from this delusion.
I use the word delusion, because this is what it was. The bible is clear that the vision of my life that I can imagine is a faulty and incomplete view of all that God has for me. If I spent the rest of my life thinking up my best plan for this life, I would still never come close to the glorious plan God has determined for me.
1Cor. 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
1Cor. 13:12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
2Cor. 1:14 as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Eph. 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us
When we look at David, we see a king that was not defined by a crown or a thrown. David’s integrity, leadership and courage, the ways of a king, were intact long before his physical coronation. As a matter of fact, David never really needed a kingdom to confirm his calling. In God’s eyes David was a king long before he sat on Jerusalem’s throne. Instead of pining for an unattained future while wasting today, David seized the day by being the king he was called to be. May we be able to do the same.
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