Everyone was there. She was much loved. She had actually won “Miss Congeniality” at the Miss America pageant, so she had a natural ability to make friends. She endeared herself to many people; many had come to pay their respects and to mourn her passing.

Family and friends has gathered to remember the life of Georgina MacLean. She was far too young to die. A mother in her early forties, her children were 20, 19 and 9 years old. I was the 9 year old. I didn’t understand what was going on. All I knew was that the person I loved most in the entire world, was now gone and never coming back.

Everyone was at her funeral, everyone that is, except me. In an attempt to shield me from the grief of this tragedy my father thought it best I not attend the service. Why? Perhaps out of fear that my emotions would coming busting out in such a force that none of us would know how to deal with it? Perhaps something else? All I know was that while my entire family was united in grief, I was at the neighbour’s.

I remember jumping off my neighbour’s Volkswagen van onto stacks of tire tubes – oblivious to the life altering events engulfing me and my family. I knew they were somewhere together, but I was not with them – I was alone.

Somehow in the midst of the valiant attempt to shield me from grief, sorrow and despair, they all found their target anyway: they all found my heart. And in the midst of this wounding, in the midst of the aloneness, a simple diabolical lie of the enemy was planted in my tender heart:

“You don’t belong.”

That’s right, I don’t belong. How can I belong? Everyone I know and love in the entire world is together somewhere, doing something that somehow involves my mom, or at least her memory, but I am not there.

I don’t belong.

And so I grew up believing at the depth of my being that I did not belong. No matter where I was, no matter what group, team, class, club, company, or church I belonged to, I didn’t really belong. I was always a little separate, a little different.

It wasn’t until decades later that the Lord helped me recognize this lie of the enemy – this Spiritual Strangler Fig – that had taken root in my heart and was strangling the life out of me. I had dealt with many lies of the enemy over the years and fought into freedom, but this one stayed hidden. It wasn’t until this past summer that God by His great goodness and good greatness helped me to unpack this memory.

As I began to recognize what the enemy had sowed into my heart over 40 years ago I walked through the 5 Tools of Truth to get free: Repent – Renounce – Rebuke – Receive – Rejoice.

And then I asked the Lord if He could show me where He was in the midst of all of this. I began to relive the picture in my mind’s eye of me jumping off the van onto the tire tubes, but this time I bounced into the arms of Jesus – where he held me tight, and I heard the words of Brian Doerksen’s song Arms of Love:

“I sing a simple song of love

To my Savior, to my Jesus.

I’m grateful for the things you’ve done

My loving Savior, my precious Jesus.

My heart is glad that you’ve called me your own,

There’s no place I’d rather be

Than in your arms of love

In your arms of love

Holding me still

Holding me near

In your arms of love”

And now, I am free.

The lies of the enemy are sent to destroy who you have been created to be. No matter what wounds you have endured, and the accompanying lies that have been sown into your heart, you can be set free and healed. However, you have to be willing to do some emotional heavy lifting.

The Lord has more life for you, but you need to fight for it. Your freedom is worth your effort.

You belong to Him.

1 Thessalonians 5:5-8

^“You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.”

John 15:19

“If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Complacent: “Smug, unbothered, untroubled; pleased with your own merits, situation and advantages without awareness of a potential danger or defect.”

Perhaps a more colloquial definition of complacency would simply be: “fat, lazy, unconcerned, disengaged, conceited, self-righteous, stagnant and apathetic.”

Whichever way you slice it, being complacent is not a good thing. Complacency is settling for a substandard situation and being unwilling or disinterested to make things better. Complacency is not the same as being satisfied. Being complacent infers an element of being stagnant and apathetic.

Being complacent is an attitude that says, “This is good enough. I don’t see the need to change. Things are fine the way they are. I am unwilling to do what is necessary to improve things. This is as good as it gets.”

Complacency leads to being stagnant: “A state characterized by a lack of development, advancement, or progress; being inactive, sluggish and dull.”

It is easy to grow complacent isn’t it?

I know I can easily grow complacent in a wide variety of areas in my life: marriage, parenting, finances, vocation, my relationship with God, my role in the church, local and global issues, volunteering, giving, mentoring, friendships, etc.

There are so many different areas of life that demand our engagement it can be difficult to be wholehearted and passionate in everything. In fact, it can be downright exhausting can’t it?

There is, however, one area of our lives we can never afford to become complacent; one area of our lives that impacts our ability to be diligent and dedicated in every other area….It is, of course, our relationship with God.

I recently read a scripture that jumped off the page at me. It was a bit of a spiritual slap in the face.

Have you ever watched a boxing match, or perhaps a boxing movie, when the fighter is slumped down on his stool in the corner between rounds? He is dopey from the beating he’s taking so they put some smelling salts under his nose to “wake him up”. I have no idea what that smells like, but it’s some kind of olfactory defibrillator to jump start his awareness and focus.

That’s a little bit of what this scripture was like…

Zephaniah 1:12

“At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, ‘The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.’”

The verse speaks about men who have no belief or faith that God is actually involved or engaged in our lives. He is distant, disengaged and disinterested. He will not do anything good in our lives, nor will be do anything bad. He does not reward righteousness. He does not punish wickedness.

Complacency in this case is defined as someone who doesn’t believe God is active in our lives and the lives of others. “Whatever will happen will happen – what I do doesn’t matter.” Or perhaps, “I can’t trust God to be good, to move on my behalf – It’s all up to me.” Or maybe, “I really don’t have to deal with this sin in my life, nothing is going to change.”

It would appear that the first step out of complacency is to recognize that God is alive, He is near, He is interested, He is engaged in our lives, and how we live matters. The Lord wants us to know He means what He says and the choices we make have consequences – whether we make the choice or not.

Because, as you know, not making a decision is making a decision. By refusing to make a decision you have made your decision.

So, are there decisions you need to make, actions you must take in order to break out of complacency? God is alive and active in your life. What you do matters. He is looking for men who are not content with complacency, but who choose to believe that God cares. The Lord is looking for men who fight complacency by committing their hearts fully to Him.

So, have you grown complacent? He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Proverbs 1:32

“For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them;”

2 Chronicles 16:9

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”

Hebrews 11:6

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Have you ever asked yourself the Big 3 questions?

The Big 3 are those key life questions that most human beings ponder at some point in time. One could argue that the questions themselves may very well have been planted in our hearts by God to create a longing to find the answers in Him. The Big 3 are as follows:

1. Who am I?
2. Why and I here?
3. Where am I going?

Sure there are many other significant life questions worthy of intent investigation, but these 3 encompass so much of humanity’s shared journey. The meaning of life is really represented by the second of the Big 3, “Why am I here?”. In other words, “What is the meaning of life?”

It was this very question we discussed over dinner the other night. There is an event being held at our sons’ university bringing together 5 different spiritual world views to discuss this question. Students on campus were polled to find out the key life questions they would like to see answered. “What is the meaning of life?” came out on top.

In light of this event we discussed our belief about the meaning of life. We definitely had consensus around the table. We could summarize our thoughts in 2 words: To love. We each went to the question posed to Jesus in Mark 12:28-31: “What is the greatest commandment?”

Jesus basically said, “Love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. And, love your neighbour as yourself.”

Simple right? Well, not so simple if you are a selfish, self-centered, sinful person – which we all are. And that explains why God Himself came to change our spiritual DNA so we can love God and love others. We can only love because God first loved us:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Love is actually the very essence of God:

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” 1 John 4:16b

So what then is love? Well, love is action:

“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:18

So how do we love God?

“If you love me, keep my commands.” John 14:15

So, we love God by obeying His commands, and a new commandment Jesus gave us is to love one another:  

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34, 35

And, as explained in 1 Corinthians 13, love is patient, kind, humble, selfless, polite and not easily angered. Love doesn’t envy, boast or delight in evil. Love protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres, forgives, never fails and rejoices in the Truth.  These qualities are to mark our actions toward others.

So what is the meaning of life?

To love God and love people.

The only way we can do that is through the transformational love of God who first loved us. God is love and God in us enables us to love Him and to love others. That love is demonstrated in deed, not just in word.

Love is a verb; it is an action word. Love in action is marked by patience, kindness, humility, selflessness, politeness, peace, contentedness, modesty, goodness, trustworthiness, hopefulness, forgiveness, protection, perseverance, and fortitude. And all the while we rejoice in the Truth – particularly the Truth that we are loved by God.

We are beloved children of God!

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1

It’s all about love. Loving God and each another, because God first loved us.

So how can you further step into the meaning of your life? How will you choose to love God and love others?