Last week my wife and I were on vacation and while we were waiting to check our luggage at the airport, she noticed a man that looked just like TD Jakes. The resemblance was astounding as he was even dressed like he was ready to preach at any time. He even had a towel on his shoulder. He must have noticed us looking at him, because as we were going to our gate to catch our flight he positioned himself right in front of us and stood in a classic TD Jakes pose. Well, all we could do was laugh as we walked past him shaking our heads. AuDera wanted to take a picture, just so people would believe us, but I said, please don’t encourage him. What was funniest of all was he was flying the cheapest airline at the airport, which was a dead giveaway that he was not TD Jakes!
Does the Mirror Reflect Authentic Living or Routine?
This made me think about what people see when they look in the mirror? Who is that man or woman that looks back at them? Do they know why that person was put on this earth? For a lot of people, they really don’t know. Do you? When we don’t know who we are, we are left with others defining our purpose and mission. We find ourselves needing validation from others. We dress for compliments and we say things hoping to impress. We go to work each day and we come home. We pay the bills, drop our kids off to soccer practice and maybe go to church on Sunday. We do this week in and week out. Life easily becomes a routine and the goal is to get ahead financially, get an occasional raise and maybe a promotion and see the kids grow up and with any luck build for our retirement and stay ahead of inflation.
Do Not Settle on Living Without Dreaming
That is not a bad life, but what is missing? Passion and purpose! God created each one of us uniquely for a reason. When he fashioned you he had something great in mind that only you could do. I’m not saying that our daily grind is useless what I am saying is that many of us settle with the daily grind thinking that is all there is to life and we stop dreaming and we stop seeing that God wants to do more with us. Life’s disappointments cause us to stop living and reaching for the next thing.
Zacchaeus Reflected Rome Instead of God
One day a man named Zacchaeus heard Jesus was walking through town. Zacchaeus was the chief tax collector which means he was a regional leader and had many tax collectors reporting to him and giving him money. His loyalty was to Rome not Israel. He would have followed Roman culture and lived their lifestyle. He would have changed all of his Jewish beliefs to live like a Roman. He was very rich, but he was also an outcast in the community. But, he was fascinated with Jesus and because he was short he climbed a tree to see him. This was an act of humility for a Roman would never do such a thing especially one as rich as he was. When Jesus sees this he invites Zacchaeus to spend the day with him. By the end of the day Zacchaeus recognizes what he had become and promises to follow the law to restore everything he had taken from people. Jesus responds by telling everyone that Zacchaeus was now an authentic son of Abraham.
Zacchaeus had changed who he was so that he would be noticed by others and thereby benefit financially, but in doing so he lost everyone and everything that was close to him. Most importantly, he lost touch with who he really was created to be. Like this man we ran into at the airport, he would rather be seen as someone else than discover and live out his own purpose and destiny. What do you think?
Reflect Authentic Sons & Daughters
This week, a man at my wife’s job discovered she was dedicating the year to expressing thankfulness and he shouted out there is nothing to be thankful for! For this man, he has lost vision of what life is about and why God put him here. This is exactly how we fall into the trap Zacchaeus was living. Thankfulness 101 is when we celebrate who God created us to be. We cannot be thankful with other things until we are truly thankful for the unique and special person God made us to be. When we do this Jesus can declare, this is an authentic son or daughter of the living God!