The Dash

All you have to do is look in the mirror and realize years have come and gone. It’s sad that we can’t know more about many people other than their date of birth and their date of death. What happened in between those dates, where the dash rests on headstones? Only a relative few will know the answer.

Jeremiah shares God’s heart in Jeremiah 7:14. NIV – “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” His plans for you and I are in the dash.

It doesn’t matter what age you are today. It doesn’t matter where you live. It doesn’t matter what your job is or was. Yes, it was part of your life, but not the part that totally defines you. You are more than your job. You are more than your status. You are the essence of God because Christ dwells in you. You see, you are God in skin to many people. You are the letter from God that many people will read.

You see, the dash doesn’t include these things. It doesn’t show others the important things in your life. It doesn’t show your love and concern for people, and how you reach out and touch lives, sometimes with just a simple smile, a touch, a prayer. It doesn’t show God’s plans working out in your life.

The dash is all encompassing. Yes, it can include failures, mistakes made, wrong turns taken, but it also shows God’s presence, deliverance, and everlasting love and blessings operating in your life.

It’s time to turn the dash in your life into opportunities to share God’s love with others, to use the talents and abilities He’s given you to bring joy to others. Philippians 3:13-14, NASB states how we should live out the dash in our lives, “forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” It’s time to show the world how much God loves them, how much Jesus provides for them.

It’s time to make the dash count in your life.