Today, I uttered the words to a friend “I know that if I was on this earth for just 2 more years, and I did _______ with my life, I could stand before the Lord and say I’ve been faithful with what you’ve given me.”

I have never ever spoken like that before.

I have never had the audacity to even think like that before.

But the longer I’m on this earth, and the more I serve in different ways, the more I see how God has made me and what He’s made me for.

I am starting to see that the things that make my heart beat and keep me up at night aren’t the same things as those around me.

And I’m starting to see, that’s a good thing. God does that on purpose. He has given each one of us gifts, burdens, and passions that we are supposed to use for His purpose, for His kingdom, for our time on earth.

I used to think I was just dreaming, or being fanatical, or prideful in my desire to serve God in different ways. As I’ve prayed, and repented, and quite frankly pushed away some of these gifts and dreams, God has not released me. Sometimes my passion grows even stronger when I’m begging for Him to take it away.

I have been haunted by Matthew 25 lately. After the servants who invested their talents and make a profit form their investment are told “Well done good and faithful servant”, there is one who buries his. He doesn’t spend it, or lose it, he just buries it.

“He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours. But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.” (Matthew 25:24-27)

I have been burying treasure that the LORD has asked me to invest. And I’ve been wasting time pretending like I don’t know it’s being buried.

So as I said those words, “I know if in 2 years I’ve done _____ with my life, I’ve been faithful” I got home and realized “well then what the heck am I waiting for?” Am I really going to waste more of my life in disobedience? Fear? Comparison? Insecurity?

Or am I gonna get on with it? Am I going to start believing Philippians 2 and Ephesians 2:10 and live like it? Am I going to walk in a manner worthy of the LORD and start using my gifts for the equipping of the saints as Ephesians 4 tells me?

What about you?

What’s your _________?
Have you ever thought if I do ____________ with my life, than I know I can stand before the LORD and hear “Well done, good and faithful servant?”

Maybe’s it’s raising a family who loves Jesus?
Maybe it’s helping women in our city heal from abuse?
Maybe it’s fighting poverty on a global scale?
Maybe it’s loving your hard-to-love neighbor.
Maybe it’s big, maybe it’s small, maybe it’s simple and quiet.

Whatever it is, God has placed something unique inside of you, giftings, passions, and experiences that aren’t to be wasted.

Are we really doing anyone a favor by keeping our gifts to ourselves?
Have you, like me, been wasting time and denying what God has given you?

If you’re not sure, can I recommend going through “Restless” by Jennie Allen? Or find a few friends that can speak into your life and affirm what they see in you?

Others knew my gifts and affirmed them long before I did. Others are the ones pushing me to use them. I am the one sitting back scared and insecure, unsure and unfaithful.

I realized today, if I can speak those words with such clarity, than I need to live with such clarity too.

So tell me, if you knew you were going to stand before the LORD sooner than later . . . what are you supposed to do with your life now?

What are the good works, which God prepared beforehand, that you should walk in? (Ephesians 2:10)

What’s holding you back?

“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13)