Borders Enhance Focus

      Almost everywhere we go, we come across pictures.  Most of the pictures we see have a border, or in some cases a double or even a triple border around it.  Have you ever wondered why the border is there - what purpose does it serve?  The border is there to bring the picture into sharper focus - it enhances the main features that the artist wanted to bring out in the picture.
   Our lives are pictures which God has created - each one as unique and different from the other.  Just as the artist puts borders around the pictures they create, so God, the Creator of all life, has put borders around each of our lives.  Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have to live within the confines of the borders which are unique to our individual lives.  God, in His infinite wisdom and sovereignty knows exactly what kind of borders each one of us need, and has carefully selected the perfect borders He intends for us to live within.  As it was God who created each one of us unique in order that we may fulfil the purpose which He had in mind for us even before the beginning of time, as Paul states in Ephesians 2:10.  "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."  Even as God knows the specific purpose for which He has created us to fulfil, so He knows the perfect balance between the borders of our lives being too confining and too freeing for us to live within.  What may be too confining for one person may be just what another person would need to keep their life focused on the purpose God has for them to fulfil.
    Some of our borders are more apparent and visible than others.  My border happens to be a disability which confines me to a wheelchair.  Learning to live victoriously within the confines of life in a wheelchair has been, and continues to be a life-long pursuit.  It has only been by the grace of God, drawing on His strength that has enabled me to live and accomplish His purpose for my life.  You may or may not be living within the confines of a wheelchair, but you may have a job which places certain limitations on you.  The same holds true if you have a family member to take care of, or elderly parents to tend to.  All of these various situations place certain limitations and responsibilities upon you, which become the border within which you live. 
     We need to learn to live victoriously within our borders, and therefore cause them to enhance our life and focus upon God's purposes, instead of seeing our borders as hinderances against which we are constantly fighting.  This requires coming to a place of contentment with our life situation, including the seemingly negative situations, which many of us have been taught not to do.  We have been taught to fight against those things which confine us, although we would not admit that that is what we are doing.  We spiritualize it by saying, "I'm believing God to heal me, or deliver me from this situation."  In some situations, it may be God's will to deliver or heal us, and it is not wrong to pray for healing as we serve a God with whom nothing is impossible.  But when it is evident that God, in His wisdom, is not going to bring the healing or deliverance we desire, we begin to get frustrated.  But maybe what the Lord wants to do is to manifest His grace and strength in the midst of our weakness and limitations even as Paul discovered when the Lord didn't remove the borders from his life.  Instead, the Lord answered Paul by saying, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."  Paul's response is one of acceptance and contentment with his situation.  "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (2 Corinthians 12:9).
     As I have found in my own life, we can waste a lot of time and energy trying to escape our borders that we lose sight of the vision and calling which the Lord has destined for us to fulfil in Him.  Yes, there will be those who will tell us that unless we are free from our afflictions, the Lord cannot use us.  But I can tell you from personal experience that they are wrong.  The Lord is not looking for ability as much as as He is looking for availability.  Yet it took me years to come to the place of accepting my disability and allowing God to have His way in my life.  The amazing thing is, once we stop looking for a way to escape our borders, that's when the real freedom comes, as suddenly we are no longer focused on how limited we are.  Now we are free to discover all that we are able to do within our borders, and how much we can do and accomplish within them.  Please don't make the same mistake I did, and focus your entire life on the possibility of being healed or delivered from you negative situation someday while missing the opportunities which might be right within your reach at this present moment.  We have to live with the realities of today, as we anticipate the hope of tomorrow. 
     So many of us waste our time  and energy wishing we could serve the Lord in ways we never gifted for, and therefore will never be free to do.  Some people even go one step further and actually attempt to do things they were never gifted for, and wonder why they are not finding success and fulfilment in what they are doing.  God has placed the borders of His choosing upon our lives, not to hinder or frustrate us, but to bring His calling into sharper focus than it would otherwise be in our lives.  The more we try to fight against the borders in our lives, the more we hinder the Lord from using us just as we are, and fulfilling His perfect plan in our lives.

FULFILLING GOD’S PURPOSE

           If there has been a question which every person of every generation has asked, it must be, “Why am I here?  Do I have a purpose to fulfill?  If I do, what is it?”  It seems that no one escapes grappling with these, and similar questions throughout their lifetime.  At each stage of our lives, these questions take on a different meaning each time we face a crossroads or a major decision in our lives.  As teenagers, we ask this question in an attempt to discover who we are.  As young adults, we again face this question as we decide what career to choose.  This age-old questions pops its head as the opportunity to marry becomes a reality (should that happen).  As time goes on we wonder if we have really found the purpose of our life, and if we are really fulfilling that purpose.

           This is true of Christians as well as non-Christians.  The most discouraged, or unfulfilled person in life must be the person who has never really answered this question for themselves.  Or, if he did, he has lost the vision and determination to go on.  As the Bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish...” (Pro. 29:18). 

           All of us, no matter who we are, need a vision for our lives.  We, as Christians need the deep assurance that we, of all the people of the earth have been created and ordained by God to fulfill His purpose which He had for us from the very beginning of our lives.  The Lord had a very specific plan and purpose for Jeremiah as we see from the first chapter of his book.  “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I sanctified you; and I ordained you a prophet to the nation.” (Jer.1:5).

            Even as God had a specific plan for Jeremiah’s life, so He does for each of our lives as well.  As, if He didn’t have a purpose for our lives, you or I would not be alive today.  I believe that deep within us, each of us know what we are to do, and the reason for which we were created.  But even though we may know our calling, it may be years before that vision may come to pass in our lives.  In Ephesians 2:10, Paul clearly states that God created each one of us with a definite purpose in mind.  “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”   

             Even in the midst of his prison, Paul was a person with a vision.  He knew why he was here and he was determined, despite all the obstacles and hindrances in his way that he was going to fulfill God’s call upon his life.  Have you ever thought that if Paul  had not had the border of prison bars around him so often in the course of his life, we might not have over half of the New Testament today, as Paul did most of his writing from a prison cell.  We see a glimpse of his determination from his words in Philippians, where he states, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 3:14).

           Paul knew, when his time came to go and be with his Lord, that he had accomplished the purpose for which he had been created.  “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought the good fight.  I have finished the race.  I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim. 4:6-7).  What a statement to be able to make!

           Many of us may never be able to make such a bold and profound statement, as we have never discovered our real purpose in life.  Or, if we have, we like Moses of old, make every excuse not to fulfill it.  Deep within the recesses of our being, we know the purpose for which God has created us.  Yet, we allow the cares of everyday living to come in and rob us of the victory of accomplishing our purpose in life.  This is especially true for a person with a physical disability.  We can, and often do allow all our time and energy to be spent on the everyday things of life, which need to be done, that we have no, or very little time and energy left to pour into what God has ordained for us to fulfill with our lives.  This is one of the major attacks the       Enemy will use to condemn us with.  But don’t listen to him, because with the Lord, His mercies are new every morning.  If you blow it today, and didn’t accomplish all that you wanted to, just remember that the Lord’s mercies are new every morning.  Tomorrow is a brand new beginning.  If we blow it today, we can start afresh tomorrow.

            The secret of soaring above the situation or disability with which we are living is knowing that we have a particular purpose to fulfill, which no one else can.  Unless we accomplish that for which God has created us, that task will never be accomplished by anyone else.  You may say, “Anyone can preach or write or go take care of people.”  Well, if God has chosen you to do or perform a specific task, then He wants you to perform it, from your own unique perspective.  But without such a sense of purpose, we can allow life to drift by and become discouraged by the problems we face day by day.  It may sound strange, but when you don’t have a purpose or goal to live for, you seem to have more problems than the person who has something to accomplish with their life.  We can become so discouraged, that soon we feel there is nothing left to live for, so we give up all hope of ever trying to be or accomplish anything with our lives.

               This very thing happened to me.  Between graduating from High School, and entering Bible College, there was a three year period in which I had given up all hope of doing anything.  Life was just a blank wall staring back at me day after day.  I was so depressed; I didn’t want to get up, as I felt there was nothing to get up for so I would stay in bed until noon.  To make matters worse, in 1982 I began an Employment Assessment Program.  The purpose of this program was to find out if there was any type of Employment I would be capable of doing.  After just five weeks, the Director of the program assessed me as “unemployable”.   The reason I was “unemployable” wasn’t because I could not accomplish the various tasks I was given, but because I was unable to complete the tasks within the set time limits.  If I was depressed before I went into the program, I was really depressed when I finished.

But it is when we have a clear vision and calling in our lives that nothing will stop us from accomplishing that for which we have been ordained.   Yet even when we know our calling and purpose in god, we have a tendency to use excuses as to why we cannot accomplish that for which we have been called.  We can use any reason for not doing what we know we should be doing. 

Moses is an example of someone who used his disability of not being able to speak clearly as an excuse for not going before Pharaoh and delivering the children of Israel from Egypt.  ‘And Moses said to the Lord, O My Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.  And the Lord said unto him, Who has made man’s mouth.  Or who makes the dumb or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind.  Have not I the LORD. (Exodus 4;10-11)

When Moses continued to protest, the Lord became angry and told Moses that He would send Aaron with him, but Moses still had to go and fulfill the call God had placed upon his life.  So Moses, with his brother Aaron, and children of Israel were eventually delivered from Egypt after 40 years of bondage.

The Lord will not even accept our limitations or disabilities as excuses for not obeying and fulfilling the call He has placed upon our lives.  He will only call us to do that for which He has gifted us to do, whether we are abled-bodied or disabled.  The Lord desires to use us just the way we are, if we would give Him the freedom to do that which pleases Him in and through our lives.

  The feeling of not having a purpose for my life started at the end of High School and lasted about three years until one of my friends reminded me that I had always wanted to go to Bible College, and at that time I only lived ten minutes away from Ontario Bible College (now Tyndale Seminary and University).  But, at first I was making excuses as to why I wouldn’t be able to go, such as the cost of tuition, having to take a full course load and transportation.  But after meeting with the registrar and knowing I could be enrolled as a part time student, a childhood desire was fulfilled, and my 3 year depression was over.  

   It is when we have a clear vision and calling in our lives that nothing will stop us from accomplishing that for which God has ordained and gifted us to do.  Instead of being like Moses, who tried to use every excuse he could think of for not fulfilling God’s purpose for his life, let’s be like Paul, who wouldn’t even let his prison bars stop him from fulfilling that for which God had ordained him.