What kind of imprint do we leave on others?
By Hunter Greene
I have been blessed with a job this summer at Summers-Taylor. I have to admit that I am not doing the hard labor that you would see on a paving crew, but I have found out just recently that my job can also be painful. I am a lab technician that runs tests on the stone and sand that go into the asphalt. Part of that process is drying out the stone samples in really hot ovens and then letting them cool. A couple of weeks ago, I learned quickly that if you don’t watch what you are doing then your chances of getting burnt are much higher. As I took a metal bucket of 350 degree asphalt out of the oven, I wasn’t paying attention and the bottom rim of the bucket came in contact with my right forearm. Needless to say, it left a nice shiner there on my arm that is still healing up.
After work, I had some time to reflect on how to avoid doing that again, and I began to think about how it was the metal that burnt me and not the asphalt itself. Metal is a good conductor of heat, and I found that out the hard way. On the way home, God started giving me thoughts on how our walk with Christ is much the same. We learn in Hebrews that our God is a consuming fire, and if God is a fire so hot that it consumes the sin and brokenness of the world, then how well are we conducting that heat?
With any conductor of heat, there must be direct contact with a heat source for an extended amount of time. The metal itself is not hot, but it will change based on its interaction with something that is hot. Much like a metal bucket, we will only get hot spiritually if we are in direct contact with God daily. We have to realize that we can do nothing good within ourselves, and we must be in direct relationship with a holy God in order to become new creatures.
But for many of us who do feel the overwhelming heat of God’s presence daily, I believe we have made it a habit to stay in the oven of our churches and devotionals rather than going out to the world. Many of us have separated our faith and our works. Some of us are good at faith, and we find it easy to spend time with God everyday while forgetting the brokenness in our world today. Some of us are good at works, and we have cleaned up our lives from sin and make great efforts to love all people, all the while our Bibles and prayer closets gather dust. But we must have both.
James 2:17-20 reads, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” It is so important that we allow God to increase our spiritual temperature every day. As it says in Romans 12, our minds and souls must be renewed by Him daily. This is faith. But our faith should cause our works in Christ.
Just as a hot metal bucket left an imprint on my arm, I believe that we should be leaving imprints on others’ lives. Our goal as Christians should be to become so on fire for Jesus that others are changed by our lives. In Bob Goff’s book, Love Does, Donald Miller writes about Bob in the foreword. Donald says this of Bob, “I don’t know how to explain Bob’s love except to say it is utterly and delightfully devastating. You simply cannot live the same once you know him.” Are we making this kind of impact on people’s lives?
Far too many of us sit around, wring our hands, and worry ourselves to death what the will of God is for our lives. We desperately want something to be written in the sky for us. However, I think if we look at God’s Word, we will find that God has already given us His explicit will. His will is for us to love Him, get to know Him, and be changed by Him. Then, it is for us to love others, get to know others, and change others. This week focus on being changed by God so that we can go and change others. This is God’s will for your life.
(The Solution Column is provided by Pastor Brandon Young of Harmony Free Will Baptist Church, Hampton, and his associate, Hunter Greene).