2012 Alignment

How have you begun this year?

Perhaps part of your start was "in church."  You went to a worship service somewhere, listened to a "let's get after it" sermon about making the year ahead really count.

I hope so.

Here's how I was coaching the team God has given me to under-shepherd. We began with a morning of prayer, prompted by Paul's letter to the early Christians in the city of Ephesus.  [A few years ago, I visited Ephesus...what a place!  Today, it's in western Turkey.]

In the early verses of the letter, Paul reminds us that it is God the Father's plan "to unite all things in Christ."  A pregnant idea, to be sure.  Someday, all things (yep, ALL) will be united in and aligned with the person and rule of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Perhaps you've heard, "every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

But what about now?  Today.  Are ALL things united in Christ?  Every part of your life integrated in Him.  Is He in the middle of all of it, and every part of it?

We know the rest of the world is disintegrating, and the lack of alignment around truth and Christ Jesus is frustrating at best and coming apart at the seams at worst.  Yet the individual life of a disciple can be a display of the best of what Paul means here.  To have a life--top to bottom, side to side--aligned with Jesus Christ, is a taste of heaven here on earth.   Elsewhere, Paul says we can be the fragrance of Christ in the world.

Here's the pastor in me emerging.  Take some time and pray at the beginning of 2012.  Get an alignment.  Give every part of your living, and ALL of it, to Christ.  Let Him unite it, direct it, empower it.

Pray for it.