A young mentee and I have been making our way through Your Money Counts, a practical book by Howard Dayton on managing personal finances through Biblical principles. (I recommend it.) At one point, Dayton offers this eternal perspective: “Our momentary time on earth is but a dot on the timeline of eternity. Yet we have the opportunity to influence eternity by how we handle our money today.”1 I agree with Dayton and would enlarge the context to suggest all of our words and actions reverberate long after we’ve passed on from this life. Have you seen, for instance, people raised in broken or dysfunctional homes, only later to parent a loving, supportive, and thriving family of their own? These “transition generations,” as I call them, enrich the soil of the family tree for decades or perhaps centuries to come. A dot well lived.
We sometimes doubt our impact in this life and question our purpose; we let the bigness of the universe make us feel insignificant, or we underestimate our impact here by understanding it incompletely or evaluating it prematurely. The truth of the matter is, the fruit of our actions multiplies far beyond our notice, imagination, or the limitations of our earthly timeline. Jesus said that when we speak Biblical truth to those most willing to accept it, they “produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”2 We see only a mere sampling of the harvest, for it spreads far and wide and reproduces throughout generations. This is God’s plan for us, as Jesus so clearly declared, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.”3 This is our assignment: to sow the word, to speak Biblical truth. The results are eternal.
Are you one who stands at the seashore and questions your significance or looks at the stars and feels small? Have you reached that season of life when you truly understand its brevity, and now regret some past priorities? If so, know this: there is still time to sow seeds in fertile hearts, to speak truth to hungry souls. So, go and sow. There is plenty of big bang left in your little dot.
Father, thank You for giving us the great honor of Kingdom impact. Lead us to the fertile grounds of people’s hearts, that we would declare Your Word in great peace and joy. Rejoice in Your harvest. In Christ we pray. Amen.
1 Howard Dayton, Your Money Counts, (USA: Tyndale), 132.
2 Mark 4:20 NIV
3 John 15:16 NIV, emphasis added
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Paul Nordman—Author 