"... if Christ is raised, and if trusting him means that I will be raised with him, then this life is just a brief prelude to eternal life with Christ and ever-increasing joy with him. And if that is true, then Paul is no fool. His life of radical, risk-taking, sacrificial love is not to be pitied. Pity not them that rise with Christ. Without the resurrection we tend to want our pleasures here and now, and so we avoid risk and danger and difficulty and pain and discomfort and frustration; and so our love is tame and bland and weak and cautious and timid. But, Jesus says, if you believe that your joy in the resurrection will make up for a thousand losses and self-denials and sacrifices and dangers and risks here for the sake of love, then you will love people without a view to what you can get out of it here. It will be sustained by the joy set before you (see Hebrews 12:2). And that will be the kind of love that we all dream about from time to time."
--Jon Piper

I heartily agree with Jon Piper, that "this is the kind of love that we all dream about from time to time." But are we willing to make the sacrifices to have that kind of love?

I have been thinking lately. About how what I may want (or THINK I want) for me is not always--even often not--what GOD wants for me. I may get distracted by the "here and now," but He is always thinking about what will be best for me in the LONG run ... what will build my character. God is far more concerned with our character than our comfort. I heard that a retreat a few years ago, and it's really stuck with me. I find it very comforting when I go through difficult times.

I think about how there were certain things I wished for in college. God in His infinite wisdom didn't grant them to me, although I wanted them so badly. But if I had gotten what I wished for, the whole course of my life would have changed, and I probably wouldn't have come out here to Texas and had the privilege to serve Him here. That's not to say I wouldn't be growing as a Christian still, and all that ... but my life would have definitely been different than it is now.

By coming here to serve at GFA, there have definitely been, by default, things I've had to give up. And it hasn't been easy. There are things at times that don't make sense to me, and that I don't understand. But at the same time, from a kingdom perspective, I don't think there's any better place I could be in this lifetime ... having the opportunity to labor for eternity through my "9 to 5ish" job. What a privilege. And, too, the other day I was sitting around, thinking, "Wow, I actually ENJOY my job." How many people can say that about their vocation?