A few weeks back, I posted about a session with my coach where we talked about how I needed to find my way to the intersection of my two passions, introducing people to Jesus and helping them find and use their gifts to His glory. And setting up shop there.
My friend Victoria Culbertson from Okinawa, had a great insight into this and I just felt like I needed to share it here.
I believe we all have to do this at least once if not many times in our lives to make sure we are going in the direction God is guiding us, “the crossroads” are like the parable about the king who invited special guests to a banquet but they all made excuses so the king got upset and told his servant to go the “highways and byways” and bring in everyone who will to the banquet. I did a study once about what in the world was this place “the highways and byways.” One commentary really helped me to understand what this means. It is where everyday life and commerce meet, where the places of trade and where people live their lives cross each other, a kind of crossroads too.”
What a great interpretation of the intent of the passage. Too often we make the mistake of compartmentalizing our lives. We have our work lives and our spiritual lives. That’s not what God wants. Instead He wants integrity, that our lives are entirely integrated together so that our whole lives are our spiritual lives. In a sense we don’t go to church so much as we are the church all day everyday. We take Jesus with us to all the highways and byways.
The Message interpretation of Romans 12:1 and 2 says it perfectly.
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Go to the crossroads, your highways and byways and glorify God.
