Destination Disease and Multiple Dimensions

Last night at MERGE (GCC's college age ministry) Mark Beeson (GCC's senior pastor) came and spoke for part of the night. What he had to say really hit home with many questions I've had recently. He said that since he only had about 10 minutes to talk he wanted to share two of the most important things that he thought 18-25 year olds need to know. And I think he was exactly right.

First, he said beware of Destination Disease. In other words, don't live for tomorrow, live for today. So many times we say, "When this happens...Then I will do this." When I get a new job, when I graduate, when I get married...then I will start disciplining myself to do this, then I will pay off that, then I will commit to whatever. He said if we continue to live for tommorrow it will wreck our lives. I have to admit that I have been guilty of living like this. And Mark is right, it makes life pretty miserable at times because we live for tomorrow but tomorrow never comes. All we have is today. I need to pound this into my head.

The second thing he said was we have to live multi-dimensional lives. We don't have a choice. For example, at GCC we focus on five things. Invest and Invite (mission), Have a friend, be a friend (connect), Reach your Bible (grow), Serve once a month (serve), Do the next right thing (worship). You can't just choose one or two of these and forget the rest. You have to do them all. Life is multi-demnsional. We have to take care of all that is intrusted to us. Our job, our family, our body...everything intrusted to us.

So with that I would say that I have some work to do. I need to get rid of destination disease and make every moment count today because today is awesome and I will never get it back. I also need to begin incorporating all dimensions into my life and not just the easy or convenient ones. That's my challenge for the next while.