“For God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you had inherited” 1 Peter 1:18
As I was in conversation with one of our partners recently, he was pondering the bittersweet experience of having two families on his leadership team make the noble and courageous decision to move into the neighborhood – a neighborhood filled with distress, violence and beauty. However, what was disconcerting to our partner was the statement made by those families, “I am doing this because I want my life to count.”
He recognized a truth that took me much longer to come to grips with, and that is our lives count because of who we belong to, not because of what we do.
Our lives “counted” before the foundation of time when Jesus purposed to become the righteousness of God on our behalf.
Anything short of that acknowledgement sets us up for failure. There is no calling – other than the call to sonship in Christ – that can attain the value of life fulfillment. To think otherwise, no matter how honorable the service, is to set ourselves up for disillusionment.
Thus when we anchor our call in the foundation of being sealed in Christ’s love, we find purpose and reward in a multitude of manifold opportunities to serve! They may be inner-city or rural, national or global, frontline or behind the veil.
Our lives count because we have been grafted into the eternal count and known intimately as His chosen people by Christ’s grace.
I am grateful to be reminded that we count because of grace not acts.. what a gift!