Lipstick on a Pig

Moving from SUCCESS to SIGNIFICANCE

Didn't a political figure once talk about putting "lipstick on a pig"?  Actually, doing a google search just now, I find that many have used this phrase.

So, I've got a question for you...

In your life... in all that you do, all that you say, all that you think... are you unknowingly putting lipstick on a pig?

Here's what I'm getting at:  How can you be sure, in your everyday life, that you are investing in "matters of consequence"- investing in things that won't ultimately fail and amount to nothing?

Many live by the Boy Scout credo:  leave this world a little better than when you found it.  For sure, people do quite a variety of really amazing things with the goal of leaving the planet better than when they arrived. Not a bad credo at all.  I think we'd find many amazing people doing amazing things out there!  However, what really has lasting significance?  Can what we do, in the here-and-now, really "echo in the halls of eternity"? (Note: Gladiator reference!)

I don't know what is your driving force and how you might make your goals, but I have a sneaky suspicion that, if we're not careful, we're engaging in activities that really amount to putting lipstick on a pig.  (Apologies to those pig-lovers out there!)

Just doing some reflection today (as if you hadn't noticed) and I'm finding a great template that will, hopefully, assit me in moving a bit further away from "swine makeup application" (making "bad things good") to something supernatural ("making dead things live").

Part of the prayer that Jesus helped us to pray is the phrase "Your Kingdom Come".  So this is my submission to you (drum roll please)...

In the Morning:  perhaps one element to your morning time of prayer would be this request- "Lord- may YOUR Kindgom come through me"... through the way that I speak and behave with my family, my neighbors, those serving me at the grocery store, restaurant, my colleagues, etc.  May HIS Kingdom be expressed through my words, actions, and thoughts- not for my glory, but for the glory of the name of Jesus.  That all would see and experience the love of their Creator God in the kind words that I speak and the actions that I execute.

In the Evening:  As part of a time of reflection of the day, ask yourself, "Was God's Kingdom expressed in me today for a world that is dying for evidence of true life?"

In this way, I think that we may be helped from the error of taking the focus off of our loving, Heavenly Father.  It could help us to remove the focus of what makes me feel good or how I can be validated or successful or fulfilled or "self-realized". 

Perhaps it can assist us to put the focus on what we've all been designed for by a creative God- to express Himself in a panoply of ways so that the world directs their attention and worship toward Him and is blessed.  Blessed to be a blessing.

 (NOTE:  I used to say that I was all about "Expanding" Christ's Kingdom.  However, the deal is that His Kingdom is actually already established- whether you acknowledge it or not (Psalm 93).  So, a better way to say it is that we are to "Express" the reality of Christ's Kingdom.  Are you sniffin' what I'm scratchin'?  I thought you were.  Thanks)