A Life of Significance

“And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.” John 4:36

Lord, we know you are in all things.  Father, I pray for every member of the Deeper Still team to see their role as significant in all you are doing whether big or small or in the sowing or reaping.  May your eternal Kingdom will and work be done on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

What marks a person’s life at significant?  Is it a number of lives touched by a person? Is it speaking to multitudes in large ballrooms or coliseums?  If someone reaches 1,000 for the Lord, surely that person is counted as significant, right?  Or is it?  Perhaps what we would view as seemingly smaller actually measures larger on the Kingdom scale. 

The Lord has been stirring in me the significance of one.  There was a widow women who gave all she had…2 pennies (Luke 21:3). Small and seemingly insignificant, but huge in the eyes of the Lord.  Jesus Himself was very much into doing the small things.  He did speak to the multitudes at times, but most the stories we find in the gospels are about the one on one ministry He did.

The Samaritan women Jesus met one on one at the well.

  

The man healed at the pool of Bethesda.  

The adulteress thrown to Him in the sand. 

The man born blind.  

Raising Lazarus from the dead.

  

One on one conversations with His disciples.

  

And so many more.

  

The world likes to place a number on success.  Number of followers.  Number of likes.  Number of retweets.  And there is nothing bad or wrong necessarily in this, but it isn’t an accurate measurement.  Significance can’t be measured by social media or status updates.  Significance is based on inheritance—Kingdom inheritance.  You are a divine son or daughter of the Most High and that status and “like” by the One alone qualifies you as significant.   

People we may never meet have influenced us in ways we may never know this side of eternity.  We never met them yet, their life was significant.  Significant to God.  Significant to His Kingdom.  Significant to eternity. 

This past week, a friend of Deeper Still and former Deeper Still Team Member went to be with the Lord.  Her name is Derinda.  I never knew her nor had the privilege of meeting her.  But, one thing I do know is that the significance of her life is not able to be measured here on earth.  Her significance in the Kingdom is known to God and today she is rejoicing with Jesus and all those loved ones who have gone before her.

(Derinda is the one in the orange next to another team member, Sheila, at Eagle Rock.) 

From her picture, I can see Derinda was a beautiful person on the outside and from what I have heard from others and what I know of this team, she had a huge heart for God and setting the captives free.  One on one impact for Christ is never a small thing in the scale of Kingdom significance.   As I mentioned, I never met Derinda, but I can bet there is a dance party going on in the heavenlies unlike anything we have witnessed.  We honor your life Derinda and all you were and did in the Kingdom. Derinda, your life was significant. 

Significance.  It isn’t something that can be measured.  There are no earthly tools for this task.  All we can do is follow the Holy Spirit and live each day given to us in obedience.  Talk to those God puts in our paths.  Go out of our way to talk to those God lays on our hearts.  Significance is in the small.  It is in the mundane.  It is sowing.  It is reaping.  It is being led.  It is following.  It is in being a child of the Most High.  You, my friends, are significant. 

In Honor of Kori

“…and through Him (Jesus), He reconciled all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the cross.  Thank you that you have reconciled all things, things on earth or in heaven.  Lord, I pray for the truth of life to flow and that those lost to abortion would be reconciled to their earthly mother and fathers and honored as your beloved children.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

This past weekend I was at a women’s conference. One of the speakers spoke about her daughter who had passed away at six weeks old.  My heart ached for her.  Afterward, I went up to the speaker and expressed how sorry I was for the loss of her daughter.  She joyfully said, “I love sharing about my daughter…it gives me the opportunity to talk about her.  I get to talk about my son playing soccer and how he is doing in school, but this is the only time I really get to talk about my daughter.”

There was something in the way she spoke of her daughter and honored her life that caught my attention.  A mother grieving her daughter, saying she missed her and loved her, stirred up in me a longing…a longing to talk about my daughter.

I have a daughter Sarah, who is beautiful and nine. And I talk about Sarah all the time, about her dancing, her sweet spirit and heart for God.  But today I want to tell you about my other daughter…the one I will never hold this side of heaven. The one I will never take to dance class or tie her hair up in the pony tail.  I will never rock her to sleep as I gently sing a goodnight song or take her shopping for a new dress for Easter.  My daughter…Kori Danielle.

A part of me even feels that perhaps I lost the right to talk about her.  But then a quiet whisper reassures me.  I am not the same person who ended her life.  Yes, I said it-- I ended her life.  My choice—what a lie.  But please understand, she is not a blob of tissue and it was not just a procedure or a choice…she is a person, a real person and I grieve her loss.  And I want to honor her.  I want to talk about her.  I want you to know she is real. 

  

According to Urban Dictionary, Kori means “Perfect. Perfection in every sense of the word thus more complicated than life itself.”  It also says, “Kori is the result of a complex mathematical equation that can’t be calculated by the human mind.”  I find that interesting to say the least!  Kori is indeed perfect and I don’t think my mind can quite fathom all of that.

 

But the meaning that I have heard before and I love is from a baby names site, www.thenamemeaning.com, and it means, “God’s peace.”  Oh how I love that! 

God has indeed given me much peace and it brings me peace to know Kori is with her Heavenly Father and is indeed perfect.

 

Danielle is her middle name and the Lord gave me her middle name at the Deeper Still Retreat I went to in April 2013.  When I first heard what Danielle meant, my heart sank.  Danielle means, “God is my judge.”  Ouch.  Really?  Lord, why would that be her middle name?  Then the Lord answered me, “Because you see, others cannot judge you, I am your judge and you are acquitted by the blood of Jesus.  Jesus has paid the penalty and I find no guilt in you.”  Again, perfect.  Kori Danielle.  What a perfect name for a perfect daughter. 

I believe her hair is dark with olive colored skin.  She tans really well and has gorgeous green-brown eyes.  Her heart is only pure, never knowing the pain or sin of this world.  And she loves me. 

There was a time when I didn’t feel worthy of her love.  But the Lord has told me, “All she has ever known is my love, how could she not love you.” 

In a world, where no one wants to hear about the baby lost due to choice, thank you for allowing me to honor her today.  Kori Danielle would have been born in 1994 and she would now be 22 years old.  Her birthday would have been around this time of year.  Thank you for allowing me to share a little about my daughter as a doting mom would.  I know you may not understand, but thank you for this space to share.

I honor you Kori and look forward to the day when we can meet face to face.-  Your loving mother, Sue