Made To Live For Him

I just got in from seeing The Blindside. So, Mom? If you're reading this, I made it home safely. Doors locked. Heat works. I'm good.

And I'm no longer the last person on the face of the planet (besides my parents) that hasn't seen the movie. List. Check.

Despite the fact that there was more Ole Miss and red and blue in one viewing of a movie than I would ever care to see again, this movie was spectacular. I'm a sucker for a good sports movie. Throw in that feel-good aspect of it, and I'm like the melted butter on that bag o' popcorn in your lap. And I'm not gonna lie, knowing a good portion of the story, I started crying 15 minutes into the movie. My friend, who accompanied me and had already seen the movie once, looked at me and laughed.

Hello, my name is Katie and I'm emotional. Especially when it comes to 300-pound homeless football players.

I guess you could say I'm a compassionate person. I've always tried to look at people and see the good in them. See through what they are on the outside and find out who they are on the inside and where they come from. I'm not faultless, though. I, like many others, can get so wrapped up in my own life, that I forget that everyone isn't like me. They didn't grow up like me. They don't live life like me.

In the past couple of years, God has shown in several ways that my world isn't like His world. His world is very different. His has heartache and homelessness and starvation and disease. But He's also shown me that He's overcome that world and that nothing is impossible without Him.

I know some critics have said that The Blindside portrayed the Tuohys as a rich white family who took pity on a poor black kid and this just gives white people another reason to feel good about themselves and that if every white family could go pick up a poor black kid and take him and feed him and clothe him than the world would be a better place. Point taken. I only was able to see the movie through one point of view, so I can't really speak to how it looks to someone else. However, I didn't really see it that way.

(Plus, there were real life pictures of the Tuohy family and Michael Oher at the end of that film. And nothing in those life-filled, happy candids made me think this was just some charity case for this family.)

I loved the way that the movie continued to point out that the Tuohys did what they did because they knew it was the right thing to do. The school accepted Michael because they knew it was the right thing to do. Education is a right. Not a privilege. And some people just need more help than others.

The Tuohys may have benefitted a little more from this part of their lives than they originally set out but what I saw on that big screen in a dark room displayed just a little bit of the part of my heart that God has been working on in the past couple of years.

The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir has a song on their newest album Declare Your Name, called "Made To Live For You." It opens by saying that we were made for God's glory, all of our days are made for him. He formed us, he knows us, he made us for a specific purpose. He watches every move we make. He even knows what we are going to do before we do it. But all we have to do is be still and know that He is the one in control and follow his lead.

He laid it all out of us a long, long time ago. What did he do when he was here? He preached the Word, he showed us how to love and he served the world. And he calls us to do the same. And what is that called? Living for Him.

We take a chance, we step outside our comfort zone, we do what is right. We live for Him.

We give someone a ride, we buy someone a meal, give them clothes. We live for Him.

We listen, we teach, we learn, we love. We live for Him.

I walked out of that theater tonight and challenged myself and my friend that if we are ever in the position to do something like that for someone, big or small, to never pass up the chance. Not because it could lead to a book deal or a movie contract but because it's the right thing to do.

It's what we are called do.

It's living for Him. Showing someone else the love and mercy that God has shown us. Because what happens when a cup is full? It can only overflow if the source of fulfillment doesn't stop.

And y'all. God. Does. Not. Stop. With the love and mercy. Trust me.

Now, I've said my peace. I'm going to go ring my cowbell and thank God for letting me live for him.

(P.S. Did y'all hear precious Colt McCoy preach the Gospel to the whole world last night after that awful defeat? "I always give God the glory. I never question why things happen the way they do. God is in control of my life, and I know that if nothing else, I'm standing on the rock!" Amen, brotha! If you haven't seen in, go here and see this kid's testimony at I Am Second.)