Strive, For Eternal Significance.

    Today all across the nation, friends and family alike,  will gather around the biggest TV they can find and root for their favorite football team to win the Superbowl. I have to confess however, that I couldn't even tell you what teams are playing in the Superbowl.There is no doubt, sports of all kinds,  can teach a lot of good values to the youth of America. The importance of setting and striving with all  careful diligence and patience to achieve a desired goal and then experiencing  the joy and confidence that comes with achieving that  goal is something everyone should experience not just in sports but in all areas of everyday life.
    As a  Christian, my desire,  is to set goals for myself that will have eternal significance. I know that the  days of my human existence are short in fact, compared to God's eternity human existence is but a  moment. Americans love sports and the apostle Paul,  was no stranger to athletic competition. Paul says, in First Corinthians, 9:25 that the crown or awards that Christians, should strive for should  be eternal or incorruptible and he draws a striking contrast between the goals of the   athletes of his day compared to what the goals of a Christian,  should be. Paul compares the human discipline of the athletes of his day to the reason for the need of  discipline in the life of a Christian. The passage reads as follows; "And every man that strives for the mastery, is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible."As a Christian, I strive to do the will of God,  in my life,  right now,  for me that means being a good husband to my wife, a good father to my daughter, and a good servant to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to that end,  I am to seek to use my life to bless the lives of others with the ultimate goal of bringing as many lost souls as I can to the truth of the gospel by being the best example I can be of a believer in both word and deed. It has been said, that the chief purpose of man, is to glorify God. As one who follows Christ, I pray my life will do just that.
    I am fifty two now and I know my days on earth in light of eternity are indeed short. The reason, I write this blog, is to bless the lives of all who may read it. I have the same goal Paul,  had and that was to know what  Paul, knew at the end of his life in Second Timothy, 4:7-8 the passage reads as follows;"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me, a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day but not to me only but to all who love his appearing." When the days of my all too  short life come to and end, I want to be able to have some incorruptible crowns to cast at the feet of Jesus, and then I pray he will say the words recorded in Matthew,25:21 to me they are as follows; " His lord said, unto him well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter thou, into the joy of thy Lord." Now those are words of eternal significance and they will mean more to me as a Christian, then any trophy or award that I could ever win on earth. Strive then, my fellow believers in Christ, to live a life of eternal significance. As always, my friends, these thoughts remain, just, some words, to think on.