The Omega-point
I am really a lucky girl. I mean, REALLY lucky.
And this lucky girl has a confession to make – that sometimes (especially recently) she has felt rather unlucky, for a variety of reasons. But when I get my sanity back, even if only temporarily, I realize anew how blessed I am. And yesterday I got an email from one of my dearest, dearest sisters (”Alice”) – and after reading what she wrote, I was reminded of how lucky I am to have a friend like her. She wrote (in part) this:
God may very well call some of us to work 100 hours a week. But that’s not really the point. The point is why. Why do we do the things we do? Is it because we will feel insignificant, that our lives will have no point, unless we achieve X? Or is it because we have already found our significance in Him and are moving out of a obedience to Him? Jesus should be our Alpha and Omega. The point from which we begin every endeavor and the goal of everything we do. We need to make sure he’s our Alpha, our foundation, our significance, our identity, our justification, and pride. And then we need to make him our Omega-point, the end goal, the reason why, the point of living. When we say: “If I can’t have ____, then my life is pointless” then we know what our omega-point is.
She was writing in response to a very angst-y sort of piece of writing that I had pounded out in the midst of great discouragement and disillusionment – a state from which I’ve been rescued, if only for today. And what she said is so true – what am I filling in that _____ blank with? What do I expect to endow my life and existence with meaning?
I know what the urges are for me:
“If I can’t have a happy marriage and wonderful children, then my life is pointless”
or “If I can’t have the opportunity to change a bunch of people’s lives, then my life is pointless”
or “If I can’t have influence over the law to effect real and lasting social change, then my life is pointless”
or “If I can’t have the chance to lead hundreds of people to Christ, then my life is pointless”
All those things are valid wants, but they can’t be the POINT of my life. I need to get past that hurdle, I really do. It’s actually a huge act of surrender, finally viewing God as the Alpha and Omega – because it confesses to Him that apart from Him we really are nothing, and worth nothing, and everything collapses without His power and love holding it all together. I think that for me, at least, it’s hard to see God for who He really is – entirely indispensable and completely powerful and able to fulfill us completely – because I can’t literally see or feel Him… at least not in the ways I’m used to.
I can’t, for example, go get a hug from God – although I can feel the warmth of sunshine on my face. I can’t knock on God’s doors during office hours and sit on a couch to consult with him – although I can get on my knees and pray to Him and know that He hears me, any time of day, with no appointment necessary. And I can’t hear Him speak audibly to me (at least I haven’t yet!) to give me words of encouragement or comfort – although I can read His Word in the Bible, and I can receive encouragement from friends when He inspires them to share words of truth with me.
So…it’s a lot about perspective. And…today is one of my better days, and I have more perspective. Hopefully more days like these will follow, and I’ll rise up from my state of blah – er, God will raise me from my state of blah.