When I grow up....

I have a friend at our church who lives at an Assisted Living facility. I have visited her a handful of times over the past 5 years or so. Each time I visit her, I am so incredibly blessed! Ruth is an amazing woman of God and she is exactly who I want to be when I grow up. Crazy, huh?

You probably wonder how I can aspire to be an 80-something year old woman who lives “alone” in a facility. Well, I don’t know so much about the facility or alone part, but I just love how Ruth is still serving God in very real ways. Ruth gives financially to a church that she has not been able to physically attend in years because she believes in its mission. She receives our church Grace Mail and prayer chain e-mails each week and faithfully prays for each request. Ruth has real kingdom impact on the other residents and staff in her facility.

But perhaps her most important feature and the one that I hope I have someday is her faithful spirit and God-centered focus. She is in a stage of life when she could easily be self-absorbed with her failing physical health like so many other people I have known her age. She could be sad and depressed because so many friends and family members have passed away before her. She could be resigned to no longer having a purpose or mission in this world and therefore given up. However, you can spend just a few minutes with Ruth and you will not find any of these things happening.

Every conversation I have had with her has been full of optimism and enthusiasm and celebration. She gets SO excited when we share with her how God is working in our church and she loves to share stories with us of how she has experienced God moving in her past and present. You will always see a well-used Bible next to her chair along with other Christian books she is reading. At 80+, she is still a student and knows she has things to learn! I love that!

Then I get sad. I think of people who sit in our church most every Sunday. Their lives are FULL of opportunities to serve people and influence others towards God. But those opportunities go completely unfulfilled.

I want to view my life as a series of opportunities...placed in front of me by God. I totally have a choice how I will respond to each one, every minute of every day. Do I want to be like Ruth and run the race with everything I’ve got until the finish line? Or do I want to live like most and just enjoy the scenery along the way, but miss the real purpose and opportunities and blessings?