“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” – Romans 12:1
A humorous thought crossed my mind this evening as I pondered over whether to study ahead for my class preparations for next week or to take yet another night off to rest my weary mind. The thought was, 
“How much we will come to know when we finally reach that distant shore makes all of this struggle to learn almost seem foolish.” When the time comes for this world to end and our time with God to begin, we will at that time have no further need to learn, for all that we will ever need to understand and more will become one with who we will be. For example, all the things we wanted to ask Jesus will be, as my friend Kyle says, immediately known. Each night as I pour over the lesson plans and books in order to be able to lead my classes to the best of my ability, the thought of that eternal concept seems to make the race to learn almost pointless. But as is usually the case, when my human frailty begins to step in the way, God shows me a mightier purpose.
As Romans 12:1 states, we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, in our service to Him. Part of our physical body includes our brain. If we understand that every cell of our body’s existence is our sacrifice to our Lord, then we should attempt to better even the most minuscule fiber of its being, including our understanding of how this world works. In order to serve Him, once we accept Him, we must prepare our earthly bodies so that we can be prepared for the journey He has in store for us, once we accept our calling.
One morning this week, long before dawn, as I drove up the mountain to school, a shooting star briefly lit the sky above the road straight in front of me. My field of vision is so limited at this time due to the growing cataract in my right eye that it is a struggle just to be able to see to drive in the dark, let alone find shooting stars in the night sky; yet, there it was, like a statement before me. The singleness of that event alone caused an instant reflection of my life as if those who have near death experiences recall seeing their lives flash before them. At that moment, I could not recall once having seen a meteor fall from the sky while driving; ever. From there the thought grew, like the trickle of a stream turning into a creek, then a river. Each seemingly insignificant event in one’s life adds upon the other, building one upon the other. Like our learning, we must walk before we can run, so it is in life’s lessons. We are placed upon a path that is rarely one of circumstance when we begin to see God’s hand upon our lives. We begin to understand how each page that has been turned in the story of our lives has often taken more than just one lifetime to prepare. If we were to sit down and acknowledge these occurrences in detail, it wouldn’t take us long before the sheer magnificence of His glory would stupefy our sense of comprehension beyond what is humanly possible.
But thanks to God’s Grace, we are accepted as we are, even with all of our imperfections and shortcomings through the choices that often led us down paths less than stellar. Yes, we should strive to improve who we are and our knowledge so that we can better serve and lead others while we are here in this terrestrial place. We should not tarry, but make haste, for time is always of the essence. Our trepidation should not be of what we cannot learn in that time, but rather, how much more can we comprehend and understand that we may be used to serve in even greater capacities than we had previously imagined.
Yes, every fiber of our being becomes the living sacrifice to Him, so that each of us, should we accept Christ into our lives, become His new temple, where the Holy Spirit can once more indwell. We become the living sacrifice.
This commitment is our calling; to learn to strive to live each day to our fullest so that we can better serve Him in all that we do so that others may see and want to seek Him as well.
Our learning is nothing less than foolish if we use it for anything other than to serve Him, yet the even most simple mind can see the wisdom in calling upon the Lord, proving once more the irony and Grace by which he provides for us all. “My son, pay attention to my wisdom; Lend your ear to my understanding…” -Proverbs 5:1
This is the wisdom by which God has instructed me to share, by His Grace, someday, we may all find His glory.
Thanks be to God.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.” -Psalm 111:10
