John 9:4

"As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me . . ."

In 1989, I watched a movie called "Double Exposure - The Margaret Bourke-White Story".  It is a true story, made for TCM and starred Farrah Fawcett as Margaret.  Margaret grew up during the Depression Era and eventually became a world-renowned photojournalist for Life Magazine.  Her work is fabulous and famous.  Eventually she married, and at the end of the movie, she and her husband were living in London during the bombings of WWII.  In the final scene, the couple are in their apartment, bombs are falling, and they are having an "intense discussion" (would that be an arguement/fight???).  The husband  is all for hitting the nearest bomb shelter, pleading with Margaret not to wrecklessly throw her life away, to go with him and be safe, but Margaret is furious with him.  She had always been a notorious risk-taker and this time was no different. She violently grabs her camera equipment, yanks open the door, turns back to her husband yelling at him, telling him he's a coward, he can rot where he is, but that she will continue to do her work, no matter what is happening.  After a few more ravings, she stops and looks at him and says that she doesn't care what he does anymore, he's already dead, but "when I die, I want to be alive!"   The door slams and she's gone.

That one sentence, out of the whole movie, made such an incredible impact on me that, to this day, I've never forgotten it.  I know that God gives us nuggets of gold in everything, absolutely everything, but we miss most of them because we are not looking with the eyes and heart of Jesus. 

Today's scripture says that as long as we have a day, as long as we are alive, we must be about the Lord's work.  It doesn't matter what is happening, how we are feeling, what we are doing, or where we are, the work of the Lord is primary in our lives.  It is to BE our lives, no matter what our vocation is. 

Question:  What is the "work of him who sent me"?
Answer:    To glorify God and point others to Jesus.

Question:  How do we do that?
Answer:    By spending time with Jesus.  By being so competely consumed by the Holy Spirit, that even without speaking, our lives oooooooze Jesus.  (you know, like people who eat tons and tons of garlic ooze the scent of garlic from their pores?)

Our actions, more then all our words will ever say, speak, no SCREAM, whose we are.  Our life actions tell the world who we follow, who we love, who we live for.  And sometimes, words compliment these actions.
But the world watches what we DO long before they ever listen to what we say.  And when we do speak, if the words don't match the life actions, then we are denounced as "hypocites".  Just like the pharisees of Jesus' day, we abound with pharisees today. 

In Luke 18:8, Jesus asks the question:  ". . . when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"  In other words, will our lives be found true to Him whom we call Savior and Lord?  Will our lives be glorifying God and pointing others to Jesus?  When the Lord returns or calls us home, will we be alive in Him when we die?  THAT is what that sentence said to me, and has become engraved in my memory and heart.  Will I be alive in Christ when I die?  Will I be found faithfully doing the work of the Lord on the day he calls me home? 

O Jesus, it's so easy to love you, but sometimes I fail so miserably in pleasing you.  Forgive me, Precious Lord, and change my heart, renew a right spirit within me, so that my life with be pleasing and holy in Your sight, and that the words of my mouth and the mediations of my heart will be pleasing to you, My God, my rock and salvation.  Amen.