Living The Dash

Oh wow. I'd probably apologize to everyone I'm supposed to apologize to. I would eat more donuts. Spent as much time reading the scripture, connecting with God and spending time with my family. Well good morning and happy new year. Why don't you grab your message notes that look like this as today we start a brand new series called One Month to Live. And let me start out with a little joke. I don't know if you heard the one about the doctor who tells a guy, you know, you've got one month to live. One month. And the guy says, well Doc, what do you think I should do? And the doc says, well, I would move to Fresno, take up the accordion, open an obedience school for cats and become a 49er fan. And the guy says, that's gonna help me live longer? And the doctor says, no, but it'll seem like the longest month of your life.

In this series we wanna inspire you to think, what would I do if I knew my time was short and then to live every day with that kind of passion? And this morning I just kinda wanna do an intro for you called Living the Dash. What do I mean by that? Well the other day I went for a walk in Evergreen Cemetery. That's one of the three old cemeteries over kinda back behind Costco in Santa Cruz. Show of hands, how many of you have ever been back there in those old cemeteries? It's a very interesting little stroll full of tombstones from the 1800s. It's fascinating to me. Kinda like the author of the book One Month to Live. I find myself spellbound when I'm in an old Boot Hill type graveyard, like the kind you find here or the kind you find up in Virginia City and so on because they have all these old gravestones and I wonder who these people were, what kinda lives they led.

They all have those two dates born and died and one little dash in between them. And I look at each grave and I look at the dash and I wonder in that dash, what did he or she live for? Who did they love? What kind of lives did they lead? And for most of those people of course I will never know. But while I was there at Evergreen, I stumbled across unexpectedly the tombstone of Loudon Nelson. Now does that name ring a bell to you? For most people in Santa Cruz it does. There's Loudon Nelson, the Loudon Nelson Center and so on and I thought to myself that's interesting because here is one grave that I've accidentally stumbled upon where I do know what this man did in his dash between the day he was born and the day he died.

Do you know his story? He was born a slave on May 5th, 1800 on a North Carolina plantation and Loudon Nelson worked most of his life on a cotton field in North Carolina and then his owner brought him to the 1849 California Gold Rush where he was eventually set free and he moved here to Santa Cruz of all places when he was 56 years old. Now imagine that, you have lived your whole life on a plantation in North Carolina. You're taken here during the Gold Rush, your owner says oh I guess they don't allow slavery here. He sets you free, now what do you do? 56 penniless, he arrives in Santa Cruz, records say he was one of only two African Americans in town and he makes friends with the pastor of the Methodist Church downtown where he ended up attending regularly.

Loudon Nelson got his first job as a shoe cobbler and he saved up every penny he made and then he rented some land to grow produce and sell it to local markets. Again, saved up all the money he could until he was able to buy his own property which was right at the corner of Front Street and River Street just on the edge of downtown, kind of where the Bank of America branch is right now and there on his own land, this former slave worked as the town blacksmith and as a farmer. Now he never married, he never had kids of his own but he said the highlight of his day was seeing the local kids walk to and fro from school. He loved seeing the school kids and imagining the future that they were building for themselves.

And then the city of Santa Cruz had a budget crisis and they realized they had to cut services, some things never change do they? And they decided here's how we're gonna save some money, we're gonna close down the school. No more public education. And when doctors told Loudon Nelson that he was sick with what they called consumption back then and had only a few days to live, really they told him you have about one month to live. And Loudon Nelson knew exactly what to do with the final days of his life. He was illiterate but he found a lawyer and he dictated his will and he gave everything he had, including his land and all of his assets to the city before as he put it, the children of Santa Cruz and their future so that the school could be reopened and they did reopen it.

It served a generation of students and that school is now a community center downtown which bears his name, the Loudon Nelson Center. And standing there at his grave, I was struck at how generations of Santa Cruz residents have been blessed really because of what? One man, a former slave who had no money until he was 56 and died when he was 60 did with his dash. He invested what little freedom and little resource he had and it made a huge difference for generations. Now his example really inspires me to live the dash well. What about you? When your life is over, your grave marker will have two dates on it and a dash between them.

Now you already know the first date, the year of your birth but you don't know the second one and when you think about it, you don't really have control over either one, do you? What you can control is how you live the dash. Now I would love it if we would read our theme verse out loud together. It's at the top of your notes which are inside your bulletins also on screen. Jesus said this, here we go, let me hear you. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. Jesus came to forgive us of our sins through his death on the cross and that's wonderful and a powerful part of the gospel but the second half of the gospel is that he was resurrected so we can have that same resurrection power today and really live the kind of lives that God created us to live, people long for this, to really live life but not everybody does.

A man named Alan Sacks said death is more universal than life because everybody dies but not everyone lives. But we long for this. Diane Ackerman said I don't wanna get to the end of my life and find I've just lived the length of it. I wanna live the width of it as well. Isn't that great and I like this one from Leonardo da Vinci of all people, as a well spent day brings happy sleep so a well spent life brings happy death and I think that's true. So how do you live a well spent life? It's important to talk about here on the first weekend of the new year because I think a lot of people, maybe most people, realize I need to change some things to really live a well spent life, to really live the dash well.

You see it especially around this time of year, most people make new year's resolutions and vow, I'm really gonna change this thing this time. But then by the end of January, all that willpower's gone. In fact, take your message notes and look at the devotions attached to the sermon. We always attach daily meditations and look at the box on page three. See where it says in what area of your life are you struggling most to change? In other words, what's your resolution? Which one applies to you? Maybe getting into shape, losing weight, breaking a bad habit, relationship issues, getting spiritually filled, not procrastinating, or maybe it's something else that you can fill in the blank there like, "I will stop making fun of Fresno." We all have our areas.

So why don't we experience lasting change? Well, check this out, a lot of times, I think what keeps us from changing is the lack of a good foundation for change. We know what we need to change, we know what we'd like to change, but we really don't know how to get motivated and how to stay motivated. So this morning, what I wanna do, kinda to lay the groundwork for this series, is talk about four foundations for a full life. You need to have these things, not only to get motivated, but to keep the strength, keep the power throughout your life and of course, throughout this six-week series. So I want you to jot these things down. This is foundational to the rest of the series.

Number one with a bullet, I need to really realize my time is limited. My time, your time is limited. Now, it's interesting, in the first two services this weekend, I've watched people's body language and it's fascinating to me how many people on this point have body language like this, like, "My time's not limited, I'm immortal, I'm gonna live for centuries. I don't wanna hear this." And yet it's true and you and I need to come to grips with this because it can be very inspiring, very motivating. You know, one thing you saw in a lot of Christmas sale ads in the last month was the phrase, quantities are limited, right? Quantities are limited. Well, you can apply that phrase to your life, to every day, to every moment, to every moment of your friend and family's lives. Quantities are limited and that's what makes them so precious.

And in my opinion, one thing that keeps many people from changing is I think I have all the time in the world to change. I got centuries to change. I got centuries to fulfill my good intentions, but you don't, that's why verses like Psalm 90:12 are so important. Would you read this out loud with me? Let me hear you. Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are. Help us to spend them as we should. Number your days. Did you know that now, thanks to the miracle of the internet, you can actually number your days? You can. In fact, this is the day of my death. Wednesday, January 10th, 2035. At least that's according to a website called deathclock.com. You go online and you enter your personal info and they give you their best estimate as to the date you are checking out. They give you a handy count on clock. I've got a little more than 758 million seconds left in my life.

And you might think this is morbid, but I kept this on my desktop, on my laptop all day, this last Wednesday, 'cause I liked it. I thought, what a great reminder. I don't have centuries to carry out all my good intentions. I'll give you one example. For years, I've been saying to my wife, Lori, we should really go to Hearst Castle one year for our anniversary. She's never been, I've only been once, our anniversary's around Valentine's Day. Let's go to Hearst Castle. But we've never done it. We've been married 24 years and I've never done it. Guess what, I got reservations now. 'Cause I looked at that date. And I thought, if that date is true, I got 24 anniversaries left. 24 down, 24 to go. Quantities are limited.

And you know what I think for most of us? It's later than you think. Now when you're young, you don't wanna think about this. You just feel like, I got plenty of time left. I'm immortal or it's so far off. It's this nebulous thing. But quantities are limited. This verse isn't in your notes, but there's a guy that the Bible says was the wisest guy who ever lived. Now that's quite an endorsement from God. The wisest human being ever. And it's King Solomon. And he says in a book he wrote in the Bible, Ecclesiastes, in this verse, Ecclesiastes 7:2, a house of mourning is better than a house of feasting. In other words, sometimes it's better to go to a funeral than a party. Now why in the world would he say that? Is he just some kind of a cosmic eeyore? A funeral's better than a party. Why would anybody say this?

He says, "For death is the destiny of every man. And the living should take this to heart." He's just saying that, and many of you have been at funerals of loved ones in the past calendar year. And you know what happens. There's grief, but there's also something good that happens, something wise that happens, something healthy that happens. You start realizing, wow, we're all mortal. And it immediately ratchets everything back into focus. It doesn't depress you. It inspires you that every breath that you breathe, every time you hold a hand of a loved one, quantities are limited, so I'm going to enjoy it. I'm going to get into it. I'm going to love it.

I can tell you as a pastor, I've been around a lot of death beds watching people in the closing moments of their lives, when people are facing God, when they're eye to eye with eternity. And that ratchets their priorities back into focus. They might have lived their whole lives for achievement, or for acquisition, or for social status, but I have never once had anyone say, René, bring me my diplomas. I just want to spend one more precious moment with them. Take me to my car. Let me just sit there and stroke the leather upholstery. No, never. When we know we're dying, we don't surround ourselves with objects. What do we surround ourselves with? People, loved ones.

And all we're saying in this series is in the closing days of your life, if somebody really told you for reals, you got one month left, you'd figure it out. Almost everybody does in my observation as a pastor. So why not figure it out sooner? Walk out of here loving life, because quantities are limited. That's what makes it so precious. In fact, did you know three people who attended last weekend's services are no longer with us? They're with Jesus now. Three people for three different reasons are now with the Lord. We're doing their memorial services this month here at TLC. We didn't know we were going to be doing them this time a week ago. They didn't know. They were going to be having them this time a week ago. It comes as a surprise to all of us. Not one of them expected it. I am not trying to freak you out here, but I am trying to wake you up. Wake you up.

I've talked about this before. You know how personal this is for me. I mean, this is something that's motivated me my whole life. My dad was diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 1964. And he died just a few months later in February 1965. And one of my most prized possessions, when he had about one month left to live in January of 1965, he wrote a letter to be read to his Sunday school class and at his funeral. And I'll read you just one sentence from it. "I encourage everyone who hasn't done so to completely underline--" and the emphasis is his-- "dedicate his life to the Lord without reservation. And right now, for you know not what tomorrow may bring." As he knew so well, he was 36 years old.

Like the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians, we beg you, please don't squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. I like this quote from a surprising to me source, Pope Paul IV. He said, somebody should tell us right at the start of our lives that we're dying. "Then we might live life to the limits every minute of the day. Do it," I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows. Quantities are limited, so really invest them. And that's point two. If you know that quantities are limited, you want to risk investment. You don't want to squander your days by spending them stupidly.

There's an interesting little movie called Stranger Than Fiction. Anybody here ever seen it, Stranger Than Fiction? It's kind of got a cult following now. It's a strange and subtle little movie. But in that movie, Will Ferrell plays a man who suspects that he only has a short time to live. And he's wondering what to do with the time he has left. And in this scene, he asks his friend, what would you do if you knew that you were dying? Dave, can I pose a somewhat abstract, purely hypothetical question? Sure. If you knew you were going to die, possibly soon, what would you do? Well, I don't know. Am I the richest man in the world? No, you're you. Do I have a superpower? No, you're you. I'm not me. But do I have a superpower? No, why would you have a superpower? I don't know, you said it was hypothetical. Fine, yes, you're really good at math. That's not a power, that's a skill. OK, you're good at math and you're invisible. And you know you're going to die. OK, OK. That's easy, I'd go to space camp.

Space camp? Yeah, that's in Alabama. It's where kids go to learn how to become astronauts. I've always wanted to go since I was nine. You're invisible and you'd go to space camp? I didn't pick invisible, you picked invisible. Aren't you too old to go to space camp? You're never too old to go to space camp, dude. You know, I looked at that clip and I thought to myself, it's so odd. But one of the things that it raises the issue of is when you just pose it theoretically, what would you do if you had one month off the lip? The first thing out of people's mouths is things like, I'd go to space camp, or I'd go to Vegas. Really, you'd go to Vegas for a month? Seriously, if you were dying? Or I'd eat donuts for the rest of my life, like the guy on the clip at the beginning of the message.

But in my experience as a pastor, that's not what people do or say. When they really do for reals, not hypothetically, know that they have one month left to live. You know, hypothetically, you might think, oh, I'd go crazy and I'd sin and I'd get drunk and go do something crazy. I don't think so. I was talking with Gary Williams about this. He's our pastor of pastoral care here. He's the one who really is the one who interfaces with the families who are having funerals here and the people who are in hospitals and dying. He oversees a wonderful volunteer crew here at the church, he and Jim Brummey. But he and I were talking and in our experience as pastors, we have never once can we ever remember somebody who has been told by a doctor, your time is limited, you know, you've got two months, you've got one month left. Never does somebody go, great, I'll go to Vegas.

What do they do instead? They go, wow, I wanna invest every second of the life I've got left. I wanna love people. I wanna get things straight with the Lord. And I wanna leave a legacy. And that's what the Bible talks about. Jesus actually told a parable about this, the parable of the talents, you might know it. He says God's kingdom is like a guy who's leaving on a trip and he gives a servant's money to invest. One gets 5,000, one gets two, one gets 1,000. And right away the first guy goes to work, doubles the money. Second guy does the same. Third guy digs a hole and buries it. And the boss comes back, what'd you guys do with the talents, the resources that I left you? First two guys report, he says, well done, good and faithful servants, be my partners.

And then the third servant comes in and basically you cannot imagine an employee playing the situation worse. Because he says, well, I know that you're a hard man and you're not very nice and you freaked me out. And I was so afraid of making a mistake that you'd get mad about that I dug a hole and I hid the money. And the master says, so, he's calling him on this, it's just laziness. He says, so if you thought I was so cruel, why didn't you at least put it in the bank where I could have gotten a little interest? And he says, throw this guy out and give his money to somebody who's gonna do something with it. The parable of the talents. Now honestly, for many years I misunderstood that parable, it haunted me, I kinda hated that parable, it was the one parable of Jesus that I thought, that's not very reassuring, you know? Is God gonna see me at the end of my life? You've been wasting your talents.

But as Carrie Shook points out in the book One Month to Live, that parable is meant to teach that God doesn't want us to fear him or to fear failure. Jesus is saying, go for it, try great things for God. He's saying, God likes it when you risk investing with your talents rather than burying your talents because of fear. When I finally understood that, that parable was a major influence on getting me to finally start, for example, writing books. When I'd done nothing but talk about writing books for years, why? Because of fear, what if I do something and people don't like it? What if I do something and it costs too much and we lose a lot of money? What if I, it was all fear that made me not do this? And that I realized God wants me to risk investing my talents, so I'm gonna go for it.

See, with these first two points I'm saying, don't just say, someday I will, today is the day. This is your life right now, so go for it. One of the things I love about Twin Lakes Church is I think we're starting to create an environment where people can do this. We, a few weeks ago, we signed hundreds and hundreds of cards that went out with gifts to disabled veterans at veterans' hospitals up in the North Bay. And Lisa Takoch is a woman here at the church who came up with that idea like three weeks before we did it. And she emailed us and said, this idea's kinda crazy but I just feel like, why not? You know, I'll provide the cards, let's just go for it. And she got people to help her pay for it, she brought 'em to the church and we all signed them and they went off and the thanks that have been pouring in from those veterans, it became a real ministry. Why, because somebody said, hey, I'm gonna go for it. I'm not gonna be afraid of failure, I'm not gonna be afraid of God, you know, imagining he's gonna say, well, you just didn't do it perfectly, you know, just go for it.

However, as we start the series, I don't want you to think that making something of your life means running pedal to the metal 24/7. You also need to remember to number three, rest with purpose, rest with purpose. I really do not want you to perceive this series as me or the guy who wrote the book telling you, get busy! What's wrong with you? Work harder! In fact, a lot of you need to do less, you're so busy you're not focused. This is about focusing on what matters, not about doing more. You see, think about this. If you knew that you really only had one month to live, wouldn't you linger more over meals with your friends or with your family? Wouldn't you take more walks through the Redwoods or down by the beach? Wouldn't you spend more purposeful downtime with God? Well, again, why wait? Why not do more of that now?

The Bible says, "Be still and know that I am God." You were made to have moments, to have days where you're still, where you have a Sabbath and just listen to God. The last thing I wanna produce in this series is a bunch of burned out Christians who thought that this was the typical New Year's resolution series. Remember that part of living the dash significantly is having Sabbath rests. And then finally, number four, please remember to rely on God's power, not your own power. This is very important. Don't go into the series thinking, "Okay, this is 30 days to a changed life. If I just try hard enough, here goes, ergh!" 'Cause I'm convinced that another reason that most resolutions are broken before the end of January, we try to do it in our own strength.

But listen carefully, this series is not a self-help series. You could call it a self-help-less series. We're saying, "God, I really wanna live the dash, but you're the one who's gonna give me the abundant life as I refocus on your priorities, your values, and I could only do that in your strength." Here's how Jesus put it in John 15, "I am the vine, you're the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, there's much fruit. For without me, you can do what? Nothing." Now what's this mean? In Jesus' day, everybody understood this metaphor because there were vineyards everywhere. They knew how to grow good grapes. So Jesus' original audience knew exactly what he was describing, but maybe you don't. So let's think about this. Think about a vineyard. He says, "I am the true vine." In a vineyard, the long, thick vine is the source of energy, the lifeline, the source of nutrition. That's Jesus. You find your nutrition spiritually, your power in him.

And second, he says, "You're the branches." Envision little branches with grapes on them. Like we learned in the Grace Immersion series, as little as I might like it, branches by themselves just can't produce fruit by themselves. A New Year's Resolution series just ain't gonna work if it's based on willpower. I'm designed to be connected to a power source. And so Jesus just says to the branches, "Abide." Just stay connected, that's all. That's all you have to do. I really want to emphasize this. You don't have to strive harder, sweat more, work longer, want it more. This series is about abiding. And once you get this, it's incredibly liberating. Many of you discover this again in the Grace series.

So the obvious question is, "All right, if it's about abiding, how do I stay connected?" This isn't in your notes, but just jot down two things, two words, first conversation. You stay connected by throughout your day, just having a conversation with God. Let me suggest this, try this as an experiment. Every day this week, just kneel beside your bed and say, "God, I want to dedicate this day to you. Help me to notice you and your wonderful gifts throughout this day, which is one of a limited quantity I'm gonna have in my life." And then get up from your knees and don't say amen. Don't stop the conversation. Just in your heart, keep a conversation going. You're driving to work, "God, thank you for that." You're experiencing something that stresses you out, "God, I'm stressed here, help me out." There's something that confuses me, "God, what do you want me to learn here? What do you want to teach me?" This constant conversation is part of abiding. It's continual prayer, it keeps you connected. And confession is a part of it. When you do something that you know is out of God's will, you just confess it. Now this doesn't mean you beat yourself up all the time. "Oh, I'm stupid, oh, blew it again. I'm stupid, stupid, stupid." We're all just works in progress. We all fail in weak moments. Do not wallow in the guilt. God delights in showing grace, and that's why confession brings me close to him.

So look at your four main points. These are really kind of the foundational attitudes for this one month journey. You're going to get the most out of this. If you start with realizing, "Hey, my time is limited, and so I'm gonna really invest it, not just kind of mess around, and I'm gonna really make sure I rest, not just kind of go 24/7, and I'm gonna rely on God's power, not willpower." If you have these attitudes, you're really going to benefit from what's coming up. What is coming up? Let me give you a sneak peek. Flip your notes over to page two, where it says, "When Jesus knew he had one month to live, what did he do?" Well, he did four things according to the Bible. He left boldly, you see the verses there? He lived passionately. He loved completely, and he obeyed humbly. He knew that it was his time, and so he lived like this very deliberately.

We're gonna be exploring these throughout the series. This is the outline for our series, how to live each day abundantly, how to maximize your life, how to live like Jesus Christ. Each week, we're gonna focus in on one of these four things, and I just wanna really encourage you to get the most out of this. Sign up for a small group that ties into the series, or start a new one at work, or at school, or in your office, or at home. You can do that in the lobby today, and get a guidebook. Mark talked about this during announcements. This is a great way to fulfill that New Year's Eve resolution to get spiritually fit in the new year.

Now, if you didn't catch the announcement, we have to announce this morning that we have been so overwhelmed with demand for these guidebooks. Hundreds and hundreds of them have been snatched up already, and we are temporarily out. Now, more will be arriving in just a couple of days this week, but for the time being, here is a tip. The first chapter, and only the first chapter, conveniently, is free to read on Google Books. Have you ever gone to Google Books? Let me show you how to do this. You just go to Google's homepage, and you click where it says More, and then click on Books, and then type in One Month to Live Guidebook, specifically Guidebook. And when you do that, and click on Search, instantly up will come a link to the first chapter for free, and that will work for this week until we get new books. As I say, more guidebooks are on the way, and they will arrive here this week.

Now, to get kind of an accurate count for how many people wanna get a guidebook, Jim Jocelyn, our pastor of small groups, asked me to ask you to just zip by the table in the lobby and say, you know, put me down for two, or one, you don't have to give your name or anything, it's no obligation, but this is so that he can know generally how many more to order, because we've been surprised at the demand. Now, flip back over to page one, let's wrap this up. We've been talking theoretically, what if you had one month? What if? But for some people, it's not just theory. A guy I know, Craig Grischell, pastors a large church in the Midwest called Life Church, and a few months ago, a guy in his church named Larry Dammervall, who suffers from ALS and other illnesses, was told, Larry, you have about a month to live, for real.

And Craig videotaped him to show to his church and to show at Larry's funeral service. And I saw this video and it touched me so much that I wanna show you just a few minutes of it. This is a man with one month to live, watch this. For the next 30 days, I would want my spiritual life to be one that people can look upon and say, there is somebody who believed God, believed that he knew God was doing what was best for him. There is somebody whose family knows they're left because, not only because I love them, but because God loves them, because I have shown them how to love and how to love God. I regret that, I regret being, you know, always thinking of myself first, instead of my wife and my kids sometimes, when it came to work. There's no job, if I were to get healthy today, there's no job, no amount of money that would keep me from my family like I used to stay away. There's no sporting event that would keep me away from my family. That's probably my biggest regret. Don't look at life as a series of hardships over finances. Look at life as, how can I take one step today to be closer to God than I was yesterday?

Man, that is powerful, powerful stuff. Are you gleaning some wisdom from a man who knew he had one month left to live? There's nothing that would take me from my family. Look at every day as not another crisis, but how can I take one step to bring me closer to God? I'm gonna give you an opportunity to do some business with God and take that one step in just a moment, but first I wanna add one thing. I suspect that some of you are thinking, it's too late for me. It's too much water under the bridge. I've made too many mistakes. I wanna close with this statement. With God, it's never too late. It's never too late for God. Really, God specializes in proving this. It's called redemption. The whole Bible is one story after another that proves this truth, that proves even if you do just have one month left, it's not too late to turn to God and invest your life in what matters most.

Remember Loudon Nelson, who we started with? For 56 of his 60 years, he was a slave with nothing, no money, not even any freedom to do anything, but for the last four years, he did what he could with his dash and he put his mark on his world, and you can too, let's pray together. Lord, thank you so much for the life we have. Thank you for every breath. God, I pray that each one of us here would walk out of here holding a hand, would feel the rain falling on our face or the cold breeze on our cheeks, would with each breath think this morning because it's been brought to our attention. Wow, quantities are limited, and so I'm going to treasure every day and every opportunity and not squander it.

And God, I especially pray that people would respond to my father's invitation, that if anyone here hasn't committed their lives to Christ, they might say in their hearts, "God, on this first weekend of the new year, I commit my life to you. I give you my life, Jesus. Be my Lord and Savior." Now, just to kind of cement that decision, if that's your commitment, if you're saying, "Jesus, I'm yours today," if for the first time you're stepping across that line and committing your life to God, with everybody else's eyes closed, would you please slip up in your hands so I can pray for you? Just say, "This was the moment I stepped across the line." Thank you. Thank you for that commitment. God, you see these hands, and you know the heartfelt decisions that they represent. I pray for these people, Lord, that they might grow in rich new ways this year and that they may see clearly your grace for them.

And now, Lord, all of us here want to say, "God, we want to take the next step, and may your Holy Spirit show us what that next step that we can take today is so that we may live our lives abundantly. So we may really live and not just exist, so that we may live the width of our days and not just the length of them." And Lord, help us to find both inspiration and power in what we remember at communion. As we take communion, help us to remember that you set out for Calvary, and there died for our sins, that we may be forgiven and have a fresh start and the power to live abundantly, and we thank you for that. And we not only remember that, but we recommit our lives to living within that awareness, within your power today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.