Make ready a people

(Luke 1.17)

Destined and dead in his early thirties...no, I'm not talking about Jesus. While it could be said of Jesus, it could also be said of so many people down through history.

Have you ever thought about being 'destined?' It's a subject with which philosophers and theologians have grappled for millennia.

The Bible says that John (the Baptist) was "to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous--" and yet it seems he died without having done that. At least we don't have any record of that kind of response to his preaching.

Was John the Baptist a failure?

Have you accomplished much or any of the stuff that you thought you would do with your life? What are the odds that those feelings of destiny you once had will actually happen now?

Wow, for most of us those are really, really depressing thoughts. I have enough feelings of inadequacy and failure without thinking that I've completely failed at my 'destiny.'

Maybe I have completely failed...that's one of the things that terrifies me about the 'judgment.'

Perhaps John, while in prison questioning whether Jesus was really the One sent from God, also questioned whether he had wasted his own life - whether he had somehow been sidetracked and missed the whole point of his life.

Maybe he thought along those lines...I wouldn't doubt it, it would be human.

What I do know is that history has viewed John as the last of the Old Testament prophets and the greatest since Elijah. Perhaps unknown to John and to us there were fathers who became loving to their children and perhaps there were foolish folks who turned to those who were wise...perhaps, we don't know.

Perhaps there are those who will say wonderful things of you - things that you had hoped for but believe fell far short of what could have/should have been.

Perhaps. But we can't get the opportunity to do it over, we only have now.

What's your destiny today?