Too many of us are so preoccupied with the end of our lives we fail to realize that our lives haven’t ended yet. I discovered a long time ago that my job was not to warn people that they are going to die, but to remind people that they are not dead yet. But you need reasons to get up every day and filled with joy and passion and a sense of purpose focused on the big issues. Because if you don’t, every day comes anyway and you just get dragged through life doing a bunch of stuff that everyone else wants you to do, working at a job you hate doing stuff that any monkey can do and you feel like your life is worthless.
Here are some questions that you’ll want to ask yourself today that give you reasons why you’re still alive, why you’re here, why God has a purpose that He wants to work out in your life. And maybe this Dave Rave today is your wake-up call.
1. Today, what new discovery are you going to make? What lesson are you going to learn, something that you didn’t know? Maybe a matter of history, maybe a matter of culture, maybe something you know better about how to do your work. Are you a learner or just a person who recycles old ideas and opinions?
2. Today, what wrongs are you willing to right? Instead of just listening to the sad stories what wrong are you willing to dedicate your life to making right? It may be domestic violence. It may involve children, marriages. It may be a concern over fathers staying at home and raising their children. There are a lot of things wrong with this world that need some renegades to make them right.
3. Today, what hurts will you heal? Every single day you can be absolutely certain about everyone you meet – they are hurting somewhere. Everyone is in pain somewhere. The problem is we disguise it so easily it’s hard to recognize. There are hurts to be healed. We can heal them with our words, with our time, with so many tools at our disposal if we are only aware.
4. Today, what loads will you lift? Who do you know that needs a load lifted? Maybe they are close to quitting and your ability to take one thing off the load they are carrying might make the difference.
5. Today, what dreams will you pursue to the summit of a glorious victory? Have you lived so long that you’ve lost all your dreams? If you’re not careful, people will steal your dreams and all you’re left with is your dreads.
6. Today, what adversities will you overcome? Are you the kind of person who is moaning and complaining about how life has been? Or do you recognize that just life itself is a great gift? We all have adversities. The difference is, how do you prevail? How do you push back in those adversities? What choices do you make?
7. Today, what defeats are you willing to risk on the quest of doing something truly great? Life is risk. Every moment of every day you’re at risk. There is no true security outside of your relationship with God. So what are you risking today that you have to show up and be your absolute best to cover the gap?
8. Today, who will you rescue? Instead of just seeing people as faces and walking on, you need to see them as people many of whom need a leg up or rescue, that need a friend, a mentor, or coach; someone to come into their lives and remind them that they are not alone, that they are valuable and needed.
9. Today, who will you oppose? We’re so interested in being politically correct and not ruffling any feathers, we’ve been so programmed that all anger is bad and we ought to just learn how to get along that we fail to realize that even Jesus had righteous anger, beautiful anger when things were wrong. He knew whom to oppose. Who are the people or causes that you are opposing with all of your heart, mind, and soul in order to pursue the right and the good?
10. Today, will you be renegade real, or just a religious robot? Let’s be honest. Most people check their religion at the door on Sunday morning. We don’t want to be labeled as fanatics. The truth of the matter is, religion isn’t worth having if you don’t mean by that a relationship with Jesus Christ that works out into the real world, affects the way we live, the way we occupy our space.
Every single day that I get up, I know that I have something to do, that I have an assignment. I am not a religious robot. I don’t live on the basis of fate. I don’t think that my destiny is predetermined. I get to choose. I am responsible. I can choose joy, I can choose peace, I can choose to accept the promises of God and be a renegade for God in this lonely world. How about you?