Day 2949 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Colossians 1:29 NIV

Have we ever truly seen our faith or our calling to share it with this kind of passionate intensity? To strenuously contend to make Christ known, forsaking the costs, ignoring the dangers, refusing to waver? To literally go and do without fear, without worry, without hesitation? To give ourselves fully to being used by Him to accomplish only what He wishes to do with us, through us?

Or has faith always been merely a part-time job, a weekend hobby, a song on the radio or a free concert and some coffee?

Anymore, it's hard to feel as if you're not falling behind. So many people seemingly accomplishing so many things and finding so much success in doing so. So many advancements and monumental accomplishments being achieved. So many with a platform, a power, an outreach that seems impossible to match or attain. So many big names, big headlines, big expectations, big movements.

It's all just overwhelming when you're simply a faceless human being with a name nobody knows. It's one of those things that I think gnaws on us all more than we ever really allow ourselves to notice. How can we matter? How can we make a difference? How can we possibly do anything that's in any way noticed when in this great big world filled with people constantly distracted by things bigger and louder and more welcome than our faith?

This world makes such constant progress in so many directions, and if you're not keeping up then you're being left in the dust. And in a place where so many differing perspectives and priorities are pursued and prized, it becomes hard to remain focused on a singular task. And, even if you can remain focused on said task, that option of giving up when seeing little success or accomplishment is always in the back of your mind.

Because in this world, it can very easily seem like either what we're doing isn't accomplishing anything, or that what we're doing is simply unnoticeable.

But, it is in fact small and insignificant? Or is our effort and devotion given to it all that’s truly lacking? Is our ability to share the Gospel less impactful simply because we’re normal people? Or is it because we’re trying to do it as normal people? Are we seeming to fail to accomplish anything? Or are we simply not actually giving this faith anything? Is it that we’re wasting our time trying in vain to further the Kingdom? Or are we wasting too much time on too many other things that really mean nothing to the Kingdom?

The fact is that, no matter the odds or the outcomes, our faith tells us that we're here for a reason. And as we discussed yesterday, it's not necessarily on us to try and figure out how to make that reason successful. All we need to worry about is trusting that where God leads, He provides. And that all that matters is Him accomplishing His will through us. Regardless of what it may look like.

I think so many times we get caught up in this endless existence of comparison. We are all so interconnected and intertwined that it seems as though we can't help but begin comparing our lives to those around us. And in this social media fantasy land where everyone only shares their highlight reels, our lives and the things we're working toward can quickly begin seeming entirely insignificant. And when those thoughts start speaking louder, that option of giving up starts looking more reasonable.

I'll be the first to admit that in the 8+ years of doing these posts every single day, there have been multiple times when I've wondered why I've not gotten much interest. Why so few likes? Why can I not seem to gain more followers? Why does this other account get more engagement? What can I do to make this bigger?

But as I've grown along this journey of trying to learn a little more, do a little better, and focus a little harder on what I feel called to do in this, I've realized that everything else is simply a distraction. All of this comparing numbers and tracking engagement and brainstorming different layouts or changing up the timing of when I share something or maybe making it shorter to account for this new extremely shortened attention span that much of society has anymore. It's all just a distraction, and ultimately a detraction from the point and purpose.

It all becomes a waste of energy. Because worrying about everything takes us far more time than we could ever imagine!

The time I once spent trying to think of a way to boost my feedback could have been spent contemplating the next day's post. The time spent playing around with different fonts and picture layouts and studying the best time to post something could have been spent reading more of Scripture and studying the messages that I feel this urgent need to consume and share.

So you see, the more we try to keep up and get ahead and figure it all out, the less time we're actually putting into simply doing what God has placed on our hearts for us to do.

I think so much of life anymore is built on a kind of success measured only in numbers. You only matter if you have a massive following. You're only making a difference if you've got a bunch of fans. You can only make a meaningful impact if you're reaching millions. But as we kind of touched on yesterday, what if we're not meant to reach millions? What if we waste out lives trying to force a million people to see and like and agree with and appreciate what we’re doing?

What if we pour so much time into trying to figure out how to be successful in the world's opinion as to what success is that we end up missing out on noticing the one person that we were here to help?

So much energy is wasted on things that only seem to matter because most of the world is convinced that they matter. But in the end, all that really matters is our faith and how passionately we try to serve it in whatever manner we can. Big, small, a massive following or just a small group of people who get something out of what you're doing, it all matters. And it all matters because if we're doing what we believe God has called us to do, then we're at least striving to remain focused on His will rather than our successes.

What if instead of worrying about how to make ourselves more popular, more appreciated, more widely known or noticed, we poured our hearts into knowing more about Jesus? What if rather than trying to keep up with the ways in which the world around us is advancing, we pulled back and simplified things to the point that we could actually devote more time and effort into the things that actually matter most?

What if instead of comparing ourselves and trying to gauge how well we're doing whatever it is that we're doing, we simply lived life in a way that made pleasing God our utmost priority?

At the end of this life, we'll have only had so many hours, so many days. We will have only accomplished so many things and checked so many boxes. Eventually, we will run out of opportunities. We will run out of time. We will be left with nothing but the hands and feet that we used for a while and the list of things we sought to accomplish with them.

Will God be more pleased if we lived our lives focused in a million different directions and therefore ended up dividing our time and energy among a million different priorities? Or would we have accomplished far more by giving everything we had to the few things that He put us here to do while refusing to take time away from those few things in order to broaden our reach?

The whole quantity vs. quality debate is one that I think all of us are aware of, maybe. Though now that I think about it, I don't really even know if that difference is something that many folks even consider anymore. But the point is that we can either do, have, follow, serve, prioritize many things and divide our time among them all. Or we can focus instead on seeking quality over quantity and therefore have more time and energy for each of a select few things as that time and energy isn't being divided in so many directions.

Personally, I've always been a quality guy. As I mentioned, that has been at times forgotten or overshadowed by this worldly need to do better, go bigger, be louder. But, at heart, I know that giving few things everything means more than trying to give everything only a little. And this fact is more important in our faith and in this calling we have than in any other aspect of life.

Christ calls us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all of creation. That's the message we discussed yesterday. But He doesn't need all of us to go everywhere. He doesn't lead all of us to every other person on the face of the earth. He does put in the places He needs us to be, and He does give us the abilities and the passions and the perspectives that allow us to reach exactly who we need to reach exactly when we need to reach them.

That is far and above more important than trying to accomplish everything that we've been told is important. Social media followers, church attendance, peer approval, worldly success, they're all mighty important to many if not most these days. But if we truly believe in this faith of ours, the promises it holds and the power it exudes to help change lives and lead folks to those priceless promises, then how can we afford to waste any time worrying about anything other than knowing Christ and making Him known?

I've had a lot of ideas, tried many of them, failed at most. All of us can say the same thing. We have all wasted time on things we thought mattered only to wind up with a mountain of regret at having wasted so much effort on something that never meant anything to begin with. This calling to share the Gospel and be a light in this rapidly darkening world is something of not only great importance, but it's of eternal worth.

And that's simply not something that we can find in living to accomplish anything that this world tries to tell us will make us matter. We can do nothing more meaningful than telling someone about Christ. Nothing. There is nothing more important than sharing the truth by which we'll all be judged, because one day we will all be judged. And if we've all done is nothing but waste our time worrying about everything other than building a relationship with Christ and striving endlessly to encourage others to do the same, then we will all find ourselves turned away from Heaven.

All because we kept seeing faith as a mere hobby, when in truth, it ought to be the very foundation of everything we say, everything we do, everything we are. Because without it, and without prioritizing it, we have nothing and we've gotten nowhere.

And that simply isn't a risk any of us should take if we truly believe in Christ and the priceless gift that He offers to all of us who need it more than we can imagine. We can spread this limited amount of time we have remaining across many different pursuits in hopes that we’ll manage to accomplish something of some value.

Or, we can give every moment we have left to serving Christ and giving Him all we have in that effort and know that we’ve done something that’s truly priceless.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold