What does it mean to you?

I recently, well about 2 weeks ago, heard a song called, “Made for More” by Josh Baldwin and I loved the tune and the words. It went round and round in my mind for days!

But one line in particular kept catching my attention; I wasn’t made to be tending a grave.

When something like this catches me, I immediately want to know, ‘what does this mean? What does it mean to me. What is it God might want to show me?’

When we tend a grave, we cut the grass, plant flowers, keep the headstone clean. But I don’t have a grave to tend yet.

When I accepted Christ as my Savior, the old passed away and the new had come, I’ve been born again. I was baptized as a symbol of my death to the old way of living, a ‘walking dead’ kind of existence. Being born again, being born in the Spirit means living in newness of live. I don’t live the same way I lived before. I live in obedience to Christ, to the Word of God, I live to please God.

I turned my back on the old life, giving up living as the world does.

So, what was the grave I was tending? I’ve been playing with the notion that my old life was a kind of walking dead person. In that life I tried to make this ‘dead’ person look good. Make-up, hair styled approvingly, clothing that made me look good. I put on a happy face no matter what happened. I did everything I thought I should do in this world, in my life to look good on the outside, but inside I was dead, right?

I was one of the white-washed tombs Jesus accused the Pharisees of being. Look good on the outside, but stinking of decay on the inside.

And that’s what this line of the song means to me. I was tending a grave, my own dead spiritual life.

But as the song says further along, ‘I was made for more‘.

I was made to live with love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness and all the other attributes of the Fruit of the Spirit. I was made to follow what real love is according to 1 Cor 13, to be kind as Jesus was kind, to turn away wrath with a gentle answer, to think of others more than I think of myself, to put the needs of others before my own wants. So much of the Bible talks of how we live for more than just ourselves, how we live in the world but don’t let the world live in us.

I can attest to the truth, once I faithfully, or as faithful as possible, began living to please God, I became more content, happier, and more full of joy. I have more compassion, more mercy and kindness toward others and I have more faith in, and love God more.

These are some of the ways in which I believe I was made for more.

I could go deeper into Scripture and search out all the ways my life is ‘more’, but I think you understand the drift of my thoughts. Perhaps you can think of ways that mean more to you.

Blessings to you as you throw off the old dead habits and traditions that serve only to tend the grave of your old dead self, and walk into more of life that God made you for.

Baruch Adonai, (Blessed be the Lord)

Brenda