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Welcome to the me and I Am post and podcast. i’m the host Dr. Ed Peterson. If this is your first time we’re in a series called “Average” and we’re looking at three chapters in the book of Matthew known as the Sermon on the mount.
So just a short recap. For years Ann Marie and i had a purpose statement for us to live by. One day while studying something else i felt led that it was an incorrect purpose, that while it sounded good it was wrongly worded. The original statement said “We live each day to apply the word to our lives, to our family and to others. On the surface it sounds like a noble undertaking. It sounds very spiritual right? So let me continue. i began an intense search for what could possibly be wrong with our purpose statement. Here’s briefly what i found. To apply the word to my life implies that my life is what is solid, unchanging, the foundation, that my life is the constant.
Despite our purpose statement, the only constant in our life was the fact that it was constantly changing or a better way of saying it is that it was constantly being tossed about by circumstances. i used to describe my life as a roller coaster filled with ups and downs. One moment a high and seconds later rapidly heading downward to a new low. It was grueling and while i questioned all of it i had no clue as to why it was that way so i actually just accepted it as the plan God had for my life.
i couldn’t have been more wrong! Having a purpose statement for my life for anyone’s life is one of the best things anyone can do. ”ll see if i can come back to that later. As i said i began an intense search for what could be wrong, but more specifically, if this statement is wrong then what should it be to be right? The simplest way for me to explain this is to share the corrected purpose statement. “We live each day to apply our live’s to the word, in our family and in others.” Did you catch that? i live each day to apply my life to the word, not the word to my life. The word never changes. It’s the constant! You’re asking, “does that mean that your life is no longer a roller coaster? Exactly! But that doesn’t mean the opportunity to get on that roller coaster doesn’t exist. And… if i do decide to get on the roller coaster, i’m on it for the purpose of the ride, the thrill, not the dread of the up’s and downs. my preference is to stay away from roller coasters, both spiritually and physically.
my first purpose statement was like trying to catch a plane that was already on the run-way, or often like trying to catch a plane already in the air. The current purpose statement is the plane setting at the gate waiting for me to get onboard. i booked a ticket to an intentional place where i desired to go. i paid for it, i packed my bags for the trip, i checked in on-line, printed out my boarding pass and i arrive at the gate without any stress. .
in summary the idea of applying the word to my life, while sounding good, is average. “And many are those who are entering through it.(the wide gate) (trying to apply the word to their lives) everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a stupid (foolish) man who built his house upon the sand (upon themselves). And the rain fell and the floods came (trials) and the winds blew (circumstances) and beat against that house (my life), and it fell (was over-whelmed)—and great and complete was the fall (panic, stress, fear, calamity, drama) of it. AVERAGE!
That’s not a judgment it’s the truth. Hardly a day goes by when someone doesn’t share about how difficult their life is and i understand because i’ve been there and let me say this, i still find myself there once in a while. It happens when i forget my purpose, when i forget my WHY.
Or i can choose differently. “Enter through the narrow gate; “But the gate is narrow (contracted by pressure) and the way is straitened and compressed (intentional) that leads away to life, and few are those who find it. So everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts upon them [obeying them] will be like a sensible (prudent, practical, wise) man who built his house upon the rock (anything but average). And the rain fell (trials, circumstance) and the floods (disappointments, hurts, doubts) came and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, WHY? Because it had been founded on the rock (on the WORD not my life).
Until next time be blessed and live intentionally… average or not average?
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