– Scripture:

In light of all this, here’s what I want you to do. While I’m locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don’t want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don’t want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

Ephesians 4:1–3 MSG

– Reflection:

To Be Mature

A steel beam has integrity when its purpose, design, manufacture, and use are aligned. In other words, to have integrity, a beam must be designed and manufactured for a specific purpose, and it must actually be used for that purpose. We can rely on a beam like that, even to bear a heavy and important load, because its entire existence is in alignment. Humans can also be aligned when we are working from the purpose we were built to fulfill. You see, God designed and built us for specific purposes, giving us natural talents, spiritual gifts, and unique passions. He further shapes us through our individual journeys. Therefore, for each of us, our purposes, our design, and the way we’re built are always aligned.

Where do we go from here?

He allows us to choose how we spend our lives. If we ask, search, listen, and discover what he had in mind when he dreamt us up and knit us together—and then allow ourselves to be used in the ways he intends—we bring our lives into full alignment. If we strike out on our own, though, and follow the world’s “oughts” into other uses altogether, we commit ourselves to living lives of misalignment. Get started on that thing that only you know you were built for. Go ahead.

Our Prayer for Today

Father, thank you for showing us the path to walk and the work to do. Please help each of us to find our own way, just as you continue to guide us each and every day. For those of us who have started our journeys and know our work, let’s get to it and welcome others and be accepting of them when they arrive. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.