I want to live like grass on purpose

1 Peter 1:23-25 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.”

I’m sitting in my back yard in the middle of November reading “men are like grass”. I’m overlooking all the grass that is quickly fading from green to yellow and thinking ‘that’s me? I’m grass’. We are heading towards winter and in one of my favorite Bible classes at BIOLA, I learned that when the Bible says “winter” it may very well mean a season but it is also symbolic of death. If the Word is true, then death is coming soon for all of us and the only thing that is going to last is the Word of God. All of my jokes, that my older sister claims are “the funniest things she’s ever heard” will pass away. Even "nice" things I may say, no one will remember them. They have no lasting value. All that will have eternal value is the Word of God which means to me, I better speak it and live it before my grassy days are over.

The futility of life was never so clear to me as when I was standing overlooking Bet She’an in Israel last week. Never heard of it? I hadn't either until i visited it last week. It was a prominent Roman city and no doubt tons of money was put into its building and upkeep. There was evidence of beautiful streets paved in marble and lavish king’s quarters that were overlooking the city. It had a raging social life and I’m sure they thought well of themselves. Several thousand years later, I’m standing in this city and to me it looks like a pile of rubble. No offense to the archeologists that spent oodles of time uncovering this ancient city. What was once the center of these people’s lives now lie in ruins. In 2000 years from now, if things are still plugging along, the earthly things that consume my mind now will be of no significance. Bakersfield might be just a pile of rubble for all I know.

At the end of a teaching from Beth Moore on the book of Daniel today she concluded her lesson concerning Alexander the Great who conquered most of the known world but died at 32 by praying “May we live on purpose”. Lord, I want to live on purpose. I want my actions and words to have eternal value so may I live and speak the Word of God.