Outliving Your Life

Recently, I decided to read a book that I have had on my shelf for quite some time, namely Max Lucado’s Out Live Your Life. I realize that many of us have been disappointed as we have witnessed Mr. Lucado become increasingly more liberal-minded, especially regarding doctrinal issues. Nevertheless, I found his book enlightening, and it provoked me to reflect on what I am doing to ensure my actions today will have long-lasting staying power tomorrow.

I truly believe every man and woman who has ever walked this planet was made in the image of a grand and glorious designer. God made every human unique. Funny, isn’t it? You will never bump into yourself on the street. You may discover some folks look like you and talk like you, but no one has your “version” of life. Hence, we were individually created to do amazing things, not just for our own pleasure, but for the advancement of others.

George Eliot, the great poet, wrote:

If you sit down at a set of sun
And count the acts that you have done,
And, counting, find
One self-denying deed, one word
That eased the heart of him who heard, 
One glance, most kind
That felt like sunshine where it went —
Then you may count that day well spent.
But if, through all the livelong day,
You've cheered no heart, by yea or nay —
If, through it all
You've done nothing that you can trace
That brought the sunshine to one face —
No act most small
That helped some soul and nothing cost —
Then count that day as worse than lost.

Charlie Kirk is an example of a man who has outlived his life. 

Charlie Kirk is an example of a man who has outlived his life. As those who love and respect our Constitutional form of law and appreciate objective truths found in Scripture, we were saddened at the death of Charlie Kirk. It was more than the taking of one’s life; it was the silencing of one of the greatest soundboards of truth and reason. What fascinated me about Kirk’s life was the impact he made not while he lived, and he did make a significant impact for sure, but the influence he had on people and conservative thinking after he died. He literally outlived himself. You see his influence played out in the life of his wife, political leaders, religious leaders, and millions of young people.

When Jesus gave His apostles their final marching orders, He reminded them in Acts 1:8, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus said in so many words, “Gentlemen, you will preach and teach in such a way that this movement will extend to every corner of the world long after you are gone.” These were ordinary men, yet they did extraordinary things for an exceptional movement. Do you realize we were born to do the same thing? God can change the community you live in with a person just like “ordinary” you.

Charlie Kirk had no formal education after being home-schooled. He was self-taught and self-motivated. In just a few years, with nothing more than a pop-up tent and a hand-held microphone, he went onto college campuses and completely changed the trajectory of universities all over the world. What if the missing ingredient in inspiring your church to grow and mature in the faith is you? What if the man or woman who needs to run for mayor in your town is you? What if the next preacher or missionary is you?

One of the greatest obstacles to seeing ourselves outside of our myopic vision of life is that we have bought into the lie from Satan that we are too insignificant to be used by God in a real and meaningful way. Isn’t that what Moses said when God shared with him His plan on freeing the Israelites from Egypt: “I am not eloquent … but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exodus 4:10 NKJV). He never thought about “outliving his life.”

I’ve always been impressed with the Samaritan woman who conversed with Jesus at Jacob’s well (John 4). We have a woman whose personal life is a wreck—five past husbands, and she’s working on number six. Yet Jesus sees potential in this woman who has been discarded by society. The beauty of this story is in the fact that the woman sees potential in herself. Despite a very checkered past and being in a community of outcasts, she refuses to see her life simply defined by the present. She goes on a mission to outlive her present life. She heads back into town after her life-changing encounter with Jesus and tells the leaders of the city to “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (John 4:29). Because of her desire to see her life better defined than by her poor choices, John records these words in verse 39, “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified.”

Still think you can’t do something, say something, or embrace a cause that will impact people and communities long after you pass from this life? Most likely, one reason why the evangelist Philip had such great success in converting Samaria to Christianity in Acts 8 was due to the groundwork that had already been laid by this Samaritan woman whose life was changed by an encounter with the Savior.

When Peter walks into Cornelius’s home, Cornelius, being a Roman soldier, bows down to Peter (a Jew). Peter will have nothing of it and commands Cornelius to stand up. Then Peter said to those in the room, “You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has chosen me that I should not call any man common or unclean” (Acts 10:25-28).

Did you catch that wording? No man is just a common man. No, we were called to do the common things in this world in a very uncommon way. When we choose to live for Jesus and crucify our self-centered desires on the altar of self-denial, we say to the world, “I’m living for something greater than what can ever be found in this temporal world.”

Joseph Stowell, in his book Eternity, reminds us, “Life is most disappointing when it is lived as though this world is all we have. Questions have few answers, and crises become all-consuming. Thankfully, this is not the only world. This present world makes sense only when we live here in light of these worlds.”

As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:19, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.” Yes, there is more to life than the present. In the words of Max Lucado, let’s “Live in such a way that your death is just the beginning of your life.”

James C. Book is the Associate Director of the CRA and serves on the board of directors for the Advance Center for Ministry Training. He is a former minister with Kissimmee Christian Church, Kissimmee, FL. Contact him at jim@thecra.org.