It’s time to choose amazingness.

“Your life matters to God.”  I started using that phrase with an email devotional to my church members in 1996.

Through 24 years of email devotionals, then a blog, and then a newspaper column, I’ve tried to remind everyone who will listen that your life matters to God. 

You are significant.

And I can’t begin to express how much it has meant to me that my weekly posts have connected with so many people. I hope you have been encouraged as much as I have by that simple reality that our lives really do matter to God.

I haven’t changed my mind, but as of last week, “Life Matters” has been retired. It’s been a great run, but it’s time for a change.

Now, the good news is that I’m not planning on going anywhere and I’m not planning to stop writing.  

I’m just following a path that God has been leading me on for about 5 years now.

From January 2015 through August 2017 I produced over 100 episodes of a podcast entitled “Your Church Matters.” I wanted to take the basic idea that our lives matter to God and remind churches—particularly small churches who don’t have multiple services or multi-sites or pastors with name recognition—that your church matters to God and your ministry is significant.

You can find all those podcasts here.

When I was recording the introductory episode, I tossed out a little phrase at the end: “Go and be amazing.”

That little phrase has taken me on a journey of clarifying my life’s calling—a calling that transcends career, location, and circumstance. 

Here’s how I describe my life call: “I guide explorers to discover their AMAZING by demonstrating and championing sacred amazement.” (And, yes, I am using AMAZING as a noun, so it really is “their” AMAZING, not “they’re” amazing.)

That call is underscored by my absolute belief that we are amazing when we are amazed by God and join Him in His amazing activity in the world.

Every person is uniquely formed by God with a special blend of passions, abilities, personality, and life experiences. Every person has a unique “sweet spot” where all those things come together in an amazing blend of purposeful living.

Every person has an AMAZING that serves as their compass to navigate all of life’s twists and turns. That AMAZING is not dependent upon ideal circumstances.  That AMAZING cannot be taken away by any external challenge.

That AMAZING is something we can choose to live into every day without exception.

It is a chosen state of being based on identity, not a feeling based on situations.

My AMAZING is helping people discover theirs. My “sweet spot” is championing amazingness.

That’s why I do everything I do. That’s why I write, sing, teach, encourage, record videos, and carry on conversations. 

That’s why I look for things to celebrate instead of things to criticize. 

That’s why I live to build bridges instead of walls.

That’s why—starting today—this weekly post will be called simply “BE AMAZING.”

Let’s do this together! It’s time to choose amazingness.

Be amazing today, my friend.

Below is a link to one of my collections of Life Matters writings.