Sharing Your Life Message

My sister & I just finished doing "The Purpose Driven Life" together. If you don't know what that is, it's a book written by our former Pastor, Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California that helps you determine "What on earth am I here for?" In forty days, the book helps you understand why you're alive & what God's plan is for you while you're here on earth.

Basically, you read a chapter & (truthfully) answer a question at the end of each chapter. I'm actually sad it's over because I learned SO much while doing this study.

On Day 37, the chapter is titled, Sharing Your Life Message (which has 4 parts: 1. your testimony, 2. your life lessons, 3. your godly passions & 4. the Good News).

Let me (kinda) shift gears for a sec - 9 years ago, I was in my Junior Year of college, dating Shad, & working full-time at the mall. I worked for a girl who was my age who partied like a Rockstar (to say the least). She & I were friends, & yes, I partied right along with her. She was a fun friend, but she was an awful manager. She got paid the big bucks to boss us all around & for some reason, I thought I could do a better job at being the store manager than she could. So, long story short - I tattled to the big whigs to get her butt in trouble for not doing her job & acting so bossy (some friend I was!). Well, we both got "let go". (Long "she-said/she-said" story.) She sued for wrongful discharge. I bawled my eyes out & started going to church.

And ... we haven't spoken since.

Well, this morning I found out that she is being charged for a fatal hit-&-run ... & yes, alcohol was involved.

All I have been thinking all day is, "this easily could've been me".

I know we all make decisions in life & we often feel the reprocussions of those decisions for the remainder of our lives, but how many of us make the decision to get behind the wheel after having alcohol, whether we "know Jesus" or not?

Yes, God forgives, but he does not change the outcome or the reprocussions of the decisions we make.

So, not only was this a wake-up call for this poor girl (who makes the decisions we all tend to make), this was a wake-up call for ME. My testimony states that I made a stupid mistake in 2001 when I tattled & got "let go", which made me feel so foolish, I marched my butt into church every Sunday afterwards. And how grateful am I to know that my testimony doesn't include a fatal hit-&-run that had me marchin' my booty into church?! AND, not only that, how grateful am I to know that my life lessons (part 2) don't include a fatal hit-&-run?!

So, back to The Purpose Driven Life - the Question to Consider at the end of the chapter was, "As I reflect on my personal story, who does God want me to share it with?"

Answer: You.