yoda and paul on purpose

 

If you know me, you should know that I love Star Wars. It’s pretty much been my favorite trilogy for as long as I can remember… even before the prequels came out. Sam and I watched The Empire Strikes Back last night, and in the scene when Luke first meets Yoda in the Dagobah System, one of my favorite Yoda quotes again struck a chord with me…

“Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Jedi must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph! Adventure. Heh! Excitement. Heh! A Jedi craves not these things. You are reckless!”

So what does a curmudgeon of a Jedi Master have to do with the apostle Paul?

Maybe nothing to you. But an hour or two after the movie ended, as I was lying in bed reading my Bible, I came across these words from Colossians:

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose I also labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.    - Colossians 1:28-29

And in light of these two very different quotes from two very different sources, I am convicted.

When it comes to my life, my “purpose” or whatever it is that this millennial generation seems to idolize, I’m Luke Skywalker. Always looking off to the distance, looking for something bigger and better; mind absent from the here and now because it’s not big enough, not radical enough, not exotic enough. Because other people don’t recognize and applaud those who are faithful HERE and faithful NOW in boring small ways. We are inspired by the seekers and strivers who are never satisfied where they are, who are constantly reaching for something bigger and brighter, who are traveling the world in the name of Jesus and who seem so much more “spiritual” because of it.

But Paul poured his labor into a purpose that can only be done here and now. It can only be accomplished by investing into where God has placed me and who God has placed in my life. And what higher purpose can I wish for than to proclaim Jesus Christ, and train up disciples who are complete in Him?

This can (and must) be done in my home. How would my life be different if my mom had been staring off at a bigger, better horizon instead of training me up in the knowledge of Christ during my growing up years?

It can (and must) be done in my church. Would my year of Bible school have yielded the same fruit if not for the incredible investment that Grace Church of Sebring made in me?

This labor, this purpose is not optional. But it can’t be done if we insist on passing it by for something “glamorous” or “radical” instead. And it won’t be done if we don’t consider it important enough to pour our whole life’s labor into, like Paul did.

Adventure? Heh! Excitement? Heh! A disciple of Christ craves not these things.

Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will  give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.  -  John 6:27