The Grandiose Idea

I've always enjoyed conversations about the "larger issues in life" or taking time to contemplate how I feel. However, recently, I asked myself, 'what does that even mean?' What really are the larger issues in life?

In some way, to me they mean God, salvation and my purpose in life. Grandiose, huh? I'm just worried that I am going to go through life believing everything that I learned as a child, never questioning any of it. I think if you question the lessons you were taught years ago - you will find the information to back it up. But what is the payoff for proving these ideas to be true?

What good does it do to know where you stand, especially if you are not expecting to be evangelistic or confrontational about your beliefs? What if you really don't have many questions and pretty much believe what you were taught? Are we missing something important about the search? What does finding the answers and truth, even if they were exactly what you thought they would be, provide you?

A sense of security?
The ability to make decisions based on beliefs?
Closed mindedness?
Joy?

Just questioning and finding answers (or not) doesn't mean we've made Christ the center of our life - where He should be. Maybe one can do some theological searching in their spare time but living life with the truth that everything is far less important than our relationship with Christ should happen always.

However, the concept of a "larger issue" is hard to pin down - what are those issues exactly? The news of the day we currently spend our time discussing is small and insignificant compared to the plans God has or is it? What does God want us to be spending our time on if these insignificant things are not the "larger issues"? Are concerns like saving the world, bringing peace or spreading the Gospel the greater issues? Or are they theological differences that everyone should take time to iron out?

Essentially, living with God's heart and seeing the world through God's eyes turns everything, I would suspect, into a larger issue. Each conversation is one in which Christ is the center, no matter if He happens to be the topic of conversation. My thoughts and words are always on matters of greater concern because I am focused on endowing the relationships I am in with grace, mercy, love and joy, simply by way of making Christ the center of my life.

Does this mean we talk "spiritually" all the time? No, count me out. Does this mean searching out theological information is time lost? I don't think so. It essentially means that by inviting Christ into each relationship we encounter (and into our own heart first) everything, all of those insignificant details and deep spiritual truths, become issues of much greater concern.