What am I perpetuating?

Do you ever feel like your only purpose in life is to perpetuate your own existence? I mean, think about it.

Today, I:

Got out of bed

Prayed

Woke up the kids

Helped Titus get ready for school

Loved Josiah while he got sick

Cleaned up after him

Did dishes

Gathered dirty laundry

Made a large pile of said dirty laundry

Cleaned up the clutter in the living room

Checked e-mail, facebook and the news

Talked through the civil war era with Josiah

(as a part of his homework)

Now it's time for lunch and I head to the kitchen with the thought, "Some days it seems like all I'm really doing at home is perpetuating my own existence." I clean clothes so that we can keep wearing clothes. I do dishes so that we can have clean dishes. I clean up clutter so that we can create more clutter. Jeff goes to work and makes money so that we can afford to wash clothes, do dishes and clean up clutter.

I mean, seriously, if this is all there is to life it's pointless and wrong. I get so caught up in my circles of influence and cycles of life that I feel like a hamster on a wheel. I'm running like crazy, but getting nowhere.

And then God gives me a gift, a thought, like a dew-drop from heaven, a light begins to break and dawn. Yes, I spend an inordinate amount of time on activities that will only have to be re-done in 48 hours. However, I also invest time and energy into people and places and spaces that have personal, spiritual, temporal and eternal impact. When I chat on the phone with a friend and encourage her, I'm also influencing the people in her life who will benefit from the fact that she chatted with a friend and got to process her "stuff". When I teach in a community group at church, sharing ideas and lessons God has taught me, I impact the lives of those in class, as well as people in their sphere-of-influence, who will benefit from the fact that they were encouraged or challenged in class. When I pray for my kids and friends and family, I impact things in the spiritual realm. When I do my best to love on my miracles and raise them to be Christ-following, tender-hearted, self-confident individuals, I'm influencing the next generation and the families they will raise.

So today, while I do dishes and care for my sick son, I'm influencing people and places for years to come. My existence is not limited to my cycle of repetitious tasks, my existence is powerful and fruitful when it intersects the divine destiny God had in mind since before the beginning of time.

Josiah just asked me how he was related to "Mrs. Roth" - a teacher at his school. The answer is that My Farmer and her husband are second cousins. If you track back to the parents of the siblings who had kids who married and had kids to create that relationship, you're talking about 3 generations. It's just a stark reminder to me that my kids will still be in relationships and perpetuating relationships long after I'm gone, and quite frankly, after they're gone.

I don't know about you, but it's helpful for me to remember, every now and then, that my life is not just about the perpetuation of my own existence. What I do today, how I think about myself, the choices I make and the way I act on them, matters.