Created to do Good Works

If you were to ask someone to recall their most life-altering moment, chances are the person could retell it with vivid and colorful language in such a way that you would feel like you are smack dab in the middle of the experience. For me, that moment was January 15, 2014. It was a day that was punctuated by the most exhaustive and most heart-felt prayer that I’d ever done in my life. My mother, who always was and will forever be “the Masterpiece Mommy,” nearly lost her life on the operating table after the main artery in her body was punctured during heart surgery. In fact, I am convinced that she did begin to transition, but with sheer determination, grit, “Godpower,” and fearless faith, she willed herself back so that she could see my siblings and me one last time.

God was kind and gracious to my mother that day. He spared her life for another 89 days. Those 89 days were transformational for my family, close friends and for me. We watched her defy the odds of surviving the projected 24 to 48 hours that the doctors had given her. We watched her undergo a trachea, feeding tube, blood transfusions and the inability to walk, to being weaned off the breathing machine, talking again, and even remembering her ordeal on January 15. She even got to the point where she became the patient with whom the nurses and other medical staff would gather for prayer. My mom was praying for them and their day. There she was in ICU and later in a long-term acute care center, doing this good thing. 

Ephesians 2:10 reminds us all that we are God’s masterpiece and that God has created us to do good things.

My mother did good things in her 73 years of life. She did good things for strangers. She did good things for our family. She did good things for her friends. She did good things for our community. She lived out her calling as God’s Masterpiece. And for that, I am forever grateful. She modeled strength, integrity, compassion and the kind of unbelievable fortitude and kindness that you can ever hope to see.

It is because of her that I chose this passage of scripture where the Apostle Paul reminds us that we have been created to do good things. As I share words of encouragement through this blog, my hope is that you will always be reminded that God has created you to do good things. It is also a reminder that we are in community with one another. Paul uses the pronoun “we,” as a declaration that we are never alone. We are never in our experiences alone. There is very much a “we” that is attached to everything that we do. Your experience shapes me. My experience shapes you. Together, we have been created to do good things.

I pray that this blog pushes you to wrestle with some things, to not settle for simply doing nothing, to give your best in everything and to always do good things! We are in this together and there is much work to be done to fulfill the calling of being God’s Masterpiece.