I was Spared for Something--If I Only Knew What!

If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times! It's among the top couple questions asked of chaplains in Intensive Care Units. In major medical centers with Surgical Intensive Care units and trauma centers with air transport of motor vehicle accident patients, the query is

pressed upon Pastoral Care ministers and pastors even more. "I know I should have died! It's a miracle! God definitely has something more for me to do. If I only knew what it is!!"

Yesterday, they were secular, even rebellious. Today, after surviving a high-risk procedure or high-impact collision, they're convicted of God's goodness and alert to His assignment. The kind of answer they're expecting is almost always specific. They'd love for the chaplain to say, "While you were coming out from

under your anesthesia, God spoke to me and said He would spare you so you could build Him an orphanage in Zambia." Or, "Your family and I were praying while waiting to talk to the doctor about your chances of survival, and when we said, "Amen," three of us raised our bowed heads and agreed that God had impressed us that you were to retrain for the gospel ministry and share your miracle story," Ready for action, they long to finish physical therapy quickly so they can obey God's will for the rest of their life. Spontaneous divine messages are seldom the way He does it. But, God does not disappoint. He answers. Here are His top three scriptural answers to all of us wanting to accomplish God's purpose for the rest of our lives.

1. "Jesus answered, 'The most important command is this, 'Listen, people of Israel! The Lord our God, He is the only Lord. Love the Lord your God. Love Him with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.' The second most important command is this: 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself.' These two commands are the most important commands." (Mark 12:29-31, ICB)

This isn't specific. It's harder than going to Africa and building an orphanage. This is all-encompassing. Fund-raising, consulting with missionaries, locating and buying land where the need is greatest, hiring architects and a construction company, interviewing managers and childcare specialists, recruiting truly needy orphans, and smothering the whole project in prayer can all be accomplished in 2-3 years. God wants more of you than that! He wants to do way more with you than the US Army who challenges, "Be all you can be!" God calls you to give every bit of yourself to Him! He puts beats in our myocardium and breaths in our lungs not so we can give Him back the next 2-3 years, but so that we can love Him back every day for the rest of our lives! Every project, every choice, every purchase, every-where we live from now on are to have God in the center of them. That's His purpose for you whether you died on the operating room table and were resuscitated or being convicted right now by reading this blog.

2. "Do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31, NKJV)

This isn't specific, either. It's all-encompassing. Our flawless Maker and Forgiver emptied Himself of glory to come down here and die like a criminal for us real criminals. In exchange, Jesus calls us not to die but to live and "do all" we do to His glory. Church leadership and using one's gifts in public worship have unique temptations to accept praise and receive glory that should go to Jesus. But, humbly giving the attention and compliments forward to the Savior is the life purpose God has called us to whether we excel at building submarine sandwiches or elucidating a complicated passage from the New Testament. I attend a weekly Men's Group by Zoom. The Christian counselors which anchor the discussion must confront participants raised from childhood with the motivators of praise and compliments. When not receiving recognition, these individuals are particularly vulnerable to self-reward and addiction. He has kept you alive to give glory to Him. Not many do this well. Give glory to God.

3. "Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt His name together." (Psalm 34:3, NKJV)

Five years older, my Brother, Jerry's Christmas gifts required dexterity or care his little boy siblings wouldn't have for several more yuletides. One year Jerry received a microscope. Our persistent begging finally gave way to a few fleeting glimpses through the eyepiece of his rudimentary instrument. We could barely hold still enough for the little mirror to reflect light up through the glass sample slides and on through its lens to reveal to our eye the microscopic wonders. "Wow! Who knew a human hair looks like that?!" "Cool! Is that really a grain of salt?! It looks more like a giant stone from the pyramids of Egypt!" We marveled at what we'd never before known which was right in front of us waiting for discovery. That's God's wish for your life! When others look at you, He looks bigger to them. When others gaze at your life pattern, God looks closer to them. When others examine your choices, ways of handling conflict, reaction to humiliation, even your admission of wrong, you "magnify the LORD" and "exalt His name." What a calling!

Yes, Lord, Do that through me!

Your friend and His,

Dave Smith