Significance
by Joni Eareckson Tada
from Glorious Intruder
by Joni Eareckson Tada
from Glorious Intruder
Every morning Connie opens Diane's door to begin the long routine of exercising and bathing her severely paralysed friend.
The sun's rays slant through the blinds, washing the room in soft, golden glow. The folds of the covers haven't moved since Connie pulled them up around Diane the night before. Yet she can tell her friend has been awake for a while.
"Are you ready to get up?"
"No...not yet," comes the weak reply from under the covers.
Connie sighs, smiles, and clicks shut the door.
The story is the same each dawn of every new day at Connie and Diane's apartment. The routine rarely changes. Sunrise stretches into mid-morning by the time Diane is ready to sit up in her wheel chair. But those long hours in bed are significant.
In her quiet sanctuary, Diane turns her head slightly on the pillow toward the cork board on the wall. Her eyes scan each thumb-tacked card and list. Each photo. Every torn peice of paper carefully pinned in a row. The stillness is broken as Diane begins to murmur. She is praying.
Some would look at Diane- stiff and motionless- and shake their heads. She has to be fed everything, pushed everywhere. The creeping limitations of multiple sclerosis encroach further each year. Her fingers are curled and rigid. Her voice is barely a whisper. People might look at her and say, "What a shame. Her life has no meaning. She can't really do anything."
But Diane is confident, convinced her life is significant. Her labor of prayer counts.
She moves mountains that block the paths of missionaries.
She helps open eyes of the spiritually blind in southeast Asia.
She pushes back the kingdom of darkness that blackens the alley and streets of the gangs in east LA.
She aids the homeless mothers...single parents...abused children...despondent teenagers...handicapped boys...and dying and forgotten old people in nursing home down the street where she lives.
Diane is on the front lines, advancing the gospel of Christ, holding up weak saints, inspiring doubting believers, energizing other prayer warriors, and delighting her Lord and Savior.
This meek and quiet woman sees her place in the world; it doesn't matter what others may not recognize her significance in the grand scheme of things. In fact, she's not unlike Emily in Our Town who signs her address as:
Grovers Corner
New Hampshire
United States of America
Western Hemisphere
Planet Earth
Solar System
The Universe
Mind of God
In the mind of God...that's about as significant as you can get, whether you sit at a typewriter, behind the wheel of a bus, at the desk of a classroom, in a chair by your kitchen table, or lay in bed and pray. Your life is hidden with Christ. Your enrich His inheritance. You are His ambassador. In Him your life has depth and meaning and purpose, no matter what you do.
Someone has said, "The point of this life...is to become the person God can love perfectly, to satisfy His thirst to love. Being counts more then doing, the singer more than the song. We had better stop looking for escape hatches, for this is our hatchery."
It's my prayer that you will discover the significance that has been yours all along as a child of the King. You may not be able to know the full meaning of every event, but you can know that every event is meaningful.
And you are significant.
(Note: Hello from Russell T's daughter, Anita. Russell has not been well at all the last few weeks. He has not been able to write anything recently but when I read this from my devotional book to him on the phone he was so encouraged by it's words. So, often my father is unwell and his life is filled with limitations. There are times when he can feel very discouraged and wonder about his significance in the whole scheme of things. But, it's when he feels the most unwell and struggles most of the night to sleep that he spends hours praying for you and your families. And now I request your prayers in Russell's behalf that God would touch him with Divine healing. Many Thanks and God Bless.)
The sun's rays slant through the blinds, washing the room in soft, golden glow. The folds of the covers haven't moved since Connie pulled them up around Diane the night before. Yet she can tell her friend has been awake for a while.
"Are you ready to get up?"
"No...not yet," comes the weak reply from under the covers.
Connie sighs, smiles, and clicks shut the door.
The story is the same each dawn of every new day at Connie and Diane's apartment. The routine rarely changes. Sunrise stretches into mid-morning by the time Diane is ready to sit up in her wheel chair. But those long hours in bed are significant.
In her quiet sanctuary, Diane turns her head slightly on the pillow toward the cork board on the wall. Her eyes scan each thumb-tacked card and list. Each photo. Every torn peice of paper carefully pinned in a row. The stillness is broken as Diane begins to murmur. She is praying.
Some would look at Diane- stiff and motionless- and shake their heads. She has to be fed everything, pushed everywhere. The creeping limitations of multiple sclerosis encroach further each year. Her fingers are curled and rigid. Her voice is barely a whisper. People might look at her and say, "What a shame. Her life has no meaning. She can't really do anything."
But Diane is confident, convinced her life is significant. Her labor of prayer counts.
She moves mountains that block the paths of missionaries.
She helps open eyes of the spiritually blind in southeast Asia.
She pushes back the kingdom of darkness that blackens the alley and streets of the gangs in east LA.
She aids the homeless mothers...single parents...abused children...despondent teenagers...handicapped boys...and dying and forgotten old people in nursing home down the street where she lives.
Diane is on the front lines, advancing the gospel of Christ, holding up weak saints, inspiring doubting believers, energizing other prayer warriors, and delighting her Lord and Savior.
This meek and quiet woman sees her place in the world; it doesn't matter what others may not recognize her significance in the grand scheme of things. In fact, she's not unlike Emily in Our Town who signs her address as:
Grovers Corner
New Hampshire
United States of America
Western Hemisphere
Planet Earth
Solar System
The Universe
Mind of God
In the mind of God...that's about as significant as you can get, whether you sit at a typewriter, behind the wheel of a bus, at the desk of a classroom, in a chair by your kitchen table, or lay in bed and pray. Your life is hidden with Christ. Your enrich His inheritance. You are His ambassador. In Him your life has depth and meaning and purpose, no matter what you do.
Someone has said, "The point of this life...is to become the person God can love perfectly, to satisfy His thirst to love. Being counts more then doing, the singer more than the song. We had better stop looking for escape hatches, for this is our hatchery."
It's my prayer that you will discover the significance that has been yours all along as a child of the King. You may not be able to know the full meaning of every event, but you can know that every event is meaningful.
And you are significant.
(Note: Hello from Russell T's daughter, Anita. Russell has not been well at all the last few weeks. He has not been able to write anything recently but when I read this from my devotional book to him on the phone he was so encouraged by it's words. So, often my father is unwell and his life is filled with limitations. There are times when he can feel very discouraged and wonder about his significance in the whole scheme of things. But, it's when he feels the most unwell and struggles most of the night to sleep that he spends hours praying for you and your families. And now I request your prayers in Russell's behalf that God would touch him with Divine healing. Many Thanks and God Bless.)
