“What would you do differently if you only had 7 days left to live?” That was the question that I was asked earlier this week. I had no idea how to answer it and all week long I pondered it.

Gosh, 7 days left to live – I knew my answer should have been extravagant, elaborate and yikes, immediate, yet all week, still no answer. Nothin’. Blank screen.

At first I thought about the fact that I would just do more of the same. For Heaven’s sake, most of the time I don’t even know what I should be doing today, with the next [hopefully] 40+ I already have left in me. I’m constantly trying to figure out how I can do God’s will …and if I don’t always know what I should be doing right now, today, how on earth could I possibly know what I should be doing with the precious last 7 days I hypothetically have left on this earth.

[pause]… we’ll get back to this in a moment….

I meet with a great group of girls each week. We pray together, we study God’s Word together – we laugh and we talk – A LOT! There is a lot of talking with a group of 8 gals, let me tell ya. And surprisingly it’s not all crying that’s going on (because I know that’s what many people think women do when they get together – they cry). However, this week there were tears.

One of my friends in the group had sad news. Her close girlfriend lost her husband, leaving her behind along with their two small children. As often as death happens in this life, and as much as I know that we are way better off in heaven, I’m always grief-stricken by those who are left behind. It’s not fair. And that brought about a lot of awareness for me as I watched my friend grieve the loss of a great husband and friend – and especially for the three who are left to pick up the pieces. So sad…

Alright, finally I think my answer was coming to me… slowly…but still not fully.

Another friend of mine shared how she had given up her career and “status” a few years ago. When she came into relationship with Jesus she realized that her ‘possessions’ and job-position had kept her from her husband and son – she had been building her life outside of her home and when God showed her that, she gave it all up – everything… to do what was most important.

In various ways and with much confirmation, God told her that He wanted her to learn to love. To love those around her, to love her family, to love those that came in and through her life. She does it everyday and I happen to think she’s one of the finest mom’s I know.

I heard that loud and clear… I heard her conviction and her willingness to trust God with her future. Her faith that God would provide for her, her trust that God would fulfill His plans for her life and especially her lack of fear that she was giving up everything that she had spent her life building. WOW, right?

The whole time we were together, these fabulous women sharing real-life stories of pain and God’s goodness (testimony), I’m still thinking about the question I had been asked earlier in the week. But I think I got it! I knew what I would love to do if I had 7 days to live… I would sit.

I would hang out. I wouldn’t strive, I wouldn’t stress. I wouldn’t badger God for ‘what was next?” or what else I could do today. I wouldn’t try to be perfect or make sure my house was spotless before my friends came over. I would welcome people into my home before I figured out what I could prepare for them to eat. I would enjoy the quietness more. I would sit down with my kids for a little longer – for no reason. I would laugh a little louder because I wouldn’t care what people thought.

Yes, if I had 7 days left to live – I would worship! Aha… yes, I would worship with my whole being (like I should be doing everyday of my life, RIGHT NOW)!

I would breath deeper, sigh longer, hug bigger, walk slower, sing louder, give greater, worship fuller… I would say all the things I wanted people to hear, but sometimes hold back for fear of how it might sound, or what people would think.

I wouldn’t care about an image – I would live to share my love. Yes, a life of worship.

…So, I think I’m going to take a page out of my ‘life lessons’ and I’m going to try to start living my life this way now. Perfectionism is fruitless – you can’t please everyone all the time – and even if I could, why would I?

I love God, more than anything… and my family is my whole world. I need to continue to spend time face-to-face with those I love as much as possible and live out my life and calling in the way God asks me everyday. It’s not a struggle because God gives me everything I need every day. … and I am called to a life of God-worship at every turn and at every moment…Yes… this is good!

Ultimately I would stop worrying and start worshiping. If I didn’t worry so much about what people thought or what expectations people had, I would definitely have way more fun. If I didn’t worry as much and chilled out more, I would be ok with a few more dust bunnies and a few more drop-by visits with close friends.

I would relax, I would chill-out, I would trust, I would replace my worry with worship…

Well, as always, we can head to God’s Word – because everything we need to know, all we believe and all we require in life is found in this one fabulous, life-changing, promise-giving, God-breathed book… So in closing, please take a look at Matthew 6:25-34 below, I think this fits perfectly;

25″Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

28″And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Great new song by Chris Quilala of Jesus Culture. Definitely one of my fav 5. You will love it!

Hmmmm, well I haven’t written for a little bit – man, time flies. SO much going on – how exciting! I’ve been taking a class about purpose and finding our purpose in God (obviously), starting with the every day things that are before us. Being faithful with what we are given each day, making a difference in the little things. My mind immediately goes to worship. How we are to approach the issue of our life’s purpose, God-given destinies, etc. is the same way we worship. We do it as a part of our every day lives. All day, every day.

Romans 12:1-2 (Message Paraphrase):

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

I see worship as a circle (cycle) of obedience. We worship God by obeying Him, but in obeying Him we can’t help but respond in worship as we begin to see the fruit of our lives given over to Him. It’s in laying down our own lives that we truly receive the life God created for us. As we begin to change in His presence we are different from the inside-out. Our lives look different (at first not to the human eye) but the change will eventually be evident on the outside also. Good news is that God looks on the heart, so each and every minuscule change is not only seen but also celebrated, by our great God!

So, my prayer today comes from another favorite Psalm of mine, written by David, in Ps 51:6 (Speaking to God he says:):

“What You’re after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then, conceive a new, true life.“

God isn’t looking for perfection, He’s looking for pursuit. What we pursue is what we will get. By pursuing God, we will receive all He intended for us since the beginning of time. He forms us with purpose and with identity – but the key to receiving it is obedience. This is an act of worship from me to God (or from you and God) – no one or nothing else.

I promise you, with God as your first pursuit and His word as your guide, your life will change starting from the inside out.

Luke 6:43-45 comes to mind as I think about this today:

“You don’t get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It’s who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.

vs: 45 (Amplified Version): “For out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart, [the] mouth speaks”

From the inside out, eh? Good or bad, the inside is eventually revealed. One of my greatest purposes in life is that my insides are right with God, so I don’t really need to cover up or hide what is coming out. I pray that the overflow of my heart is praise.

I desire for my worship to flow from the inside out. That is the way that God asks…that our worship just be an overflow. Nothing ’staged’ or ‘religious’, just an overflow of the inside, reflecting on the outside, which is what David is talking about when he wrote Psalm 40:3. As God changed him, after he repented of his sin, he explains that he began to worship (sing a new song, a response from the inside out). David had changed and his worship was a by-product that he believed would eventually move from an internal experience to an external manifestion (evangelism in this case).

Psalm 40:3;

“He has given me a new song to sing,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what he has done and be amazed.
They will put their trust in the Lord.”

I guess this fires me up the most because it combines my two greatest passions in life: worship and evangelism. This chapter has it all, including the humanity, which I myself am no stranger to.

With love, in Christ,

♥erin