Each day you make about 35,000 choices. Most are probably ones you’d consider to be mundane choices. I decided to brush my teeth, today I choose the mint toothpaste, I’ll brush my upper teeth first, etc. Some seem irrelevant; but could turn into something important. I’ll text my friend to see how they’re doing and found out they were struggling and really needed to talk today. Other choices you know are going to be hard or important going into them and give them a lot of thought. If you’re me, you’re doing a pro and con chart and trying to make the best decision. At the end of the day, what choices really matter in life? How do we decide which are most important and what we should really care about now?
15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
Mark 16:15
19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
Mark 16:19-20
After Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected, He appeared to the apostles and what did he say? He said Go. Go is an active verb, it means do something and it means that our decisions every day do matter. They matter because Christ wants us busy being a part of building the Kingdom he ushered in when He died on the cross. Yes, He was the atonement for our sins, but He also didn’t ascend into heaven and tell us to hang out until the second coming. We’re supposed to be active in spreading the Gospel message until He comes again.
That means that every day does matter in the Kingdom. We don’t pass our days as meaningless and making mindless decisions. Our days should be focused on how we’re building the Kingdom. How we can take what feel like small daily decisions and direct them towards a purpose. How to be an every day evangelical missionary for the gospel message.
We’re reminded throughout scripture that we
- Have spiritual gifts used to build up the Church and to use for the glory of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:7-11
- Should turn from our old selves and become new creations, becoming sanctified. Romans 6:22
- Live with purpose today instead of waiting for Christ to come again. 1 Thessalonians 5
- Persevere and suffer for the Gospel message but remaining encouraged and living at peace and in unity with believers. 2 Timothy 3:12-15, Ephesians 4:1-3
- Love our neighbors and spread the Gospel message to all people and nations. Matthew 28:19-20
I mean, that’s a pretty simple list of how to live right? Usually I mark off all 5 before breakfast. Just kidding, usually I’m running around like a mad woman and don’t even sit down to eat a real breakfast. But even as I’m rushing to get kids to school and daycare then roll into work barely on time, I can make Kingdom decisions. I can use my gifts of faith and encouragement to motivate my kids that day, I can teach them how to treat other kids in their class and show God’s love to others, I can choose to have patience instead of anger when no one can find their shoes. Then when I come home, I can make time to build relationships with neighbors.
It’s not about living the life of Paul or Timothy or Peter or Barnabus. It’s about living your life, where God put you, with the gifts He’s given you. It’s about praying, listening, and obeying God every day and being aware of if your actions and words are:
- Helping you grow in Christ
- Helping others grow in Christ
- Helping bring people to Christ
That’s how everyday matters are Kingdom matters.
As C.S. Lewis says so well in the Weight of Glory:
“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”