Are we living life to the fullest? You know, are we doing everything we can to squeeze every drop out of every day for the glory of God and the benefit of others? Are we fully loving God and compassionately loving others (aka, the great commandment)? Jesus did…

Now there were also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:25)

When I talk about living a full life I’m not talking about being busy for the sake of being busy, I’m talking about living life with God’s purpose in mind. Busyness doesn’t mean we are doing God’s will, it just means we can’t say “no.”

Jesus didn’t just fill His schedule with things other people wanted Him to do, and I think it’s a given that people wanted Him to do things for them. They wanted His attention; they wanted Him to solve their petty problems; they wanted Him to listen to their complaints; they wanted just five minutes of His time, that’s all. But He focused on doing what God sent Him to do and the result was that John said that if the world were one big library it still wouldn’t be big enough to hold all the books written about what He accomplished.

John was probably using exaggeration, but what I come away from this with is an understanding that Jesus lived a full life in a short time. What hinders us from writing a good book with our lives? I believe two extremes need to be avoided to following in Jesus’ footsteps:

First we need to avoid the danger of laziness. God has all gifted and called us in a unique way. This uniqueness is for the purpose of honoring Him and serving others. Lazy people “hyper-delegate” to others what God has called them to do, or they procrastinate until someone else does what God has called them to do. Either way, God is not glorified and the body suffers.

The second dangerous sin we need to avoid is busyness. Busy people have a tendency to try to do everything. Busy people don’t want to disappoint people and therefore cannot say “no.” They take away from others what God has called them to do. Busy people also suffer from pride: we think we are indispensible.

If we have been gifted and called by God (and we have), then we must pour our lives into that calling. Jesus did and His life wrote volumes. Oh that we would live our lives in such a way!

Grace & Peace,