LEAD FOR THE LINE, NOT THE DOT
Karen Hodge, Guest Writer
TODAY’S TREASURE
A dot is a single fixed point. A woman’s life is filled with innumerable dots. She sets goals and makes her plans. Dots are things we treasure, value, and prioritize. They are the things we invest our lives around. Dots can be things such as an education, job, marriage, financial security, or having children. These dots captivate our attention and fill our days. These things are good gifts from God, but they should never become ultimate things in a woman’s life. What a woman worships is reflected in her life. The things she prizes or elevates as worthy profoundly shapes everything about her; it ultimately sets the trajectory for her life.
A line is a continuous segment between two fixed points. For the believer, the line is infinite and eternal. It begins in eternity past when, “…He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him” (Ephesians 1: 4). It ends in eternity future, where He says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelation 22:13). For a woman, her temporal and earthly line is lived between birth and death. She walks it day in and day out “by faith and not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
What a woman is looking to and the things which captivate her attention may be the greatest indicators of whether she is living for the line or the dot. The dot is temporal and the line is eternal. Paul says, “We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). Whether you are living for the dot (temporal) or living for the line (eternal) has everything to do with where you fix your eyes. The greatest part of a woman’s life is unseen. We become what we behold.
Remember where we started; a leader is defined as “someone who goes before or alongside another to get them to an intended destination.” Leading along the line is leading others in light of eternity. An invitation to walk alongside others with our eyes fixed on Home. It is the daily opportunity to remind our sisters what is true when we are tempted to veer off in another direction. It is shiny leadership that leads others to Righteousness. (Daniel 12:3) It is participating with the Spirit in the preparation of the Bride of Christ for that day when we will hear what seems to be, “the voice of a great multitude… crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord, our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure…for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.’” (Revelation 19:6-8).
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LIFE-GIVING ENCOURAGEMENT
Where are you placing your hope? Is your confidence in the things that will fade and pass away or in the things that will last forever?
What is captivating your attention? Is it in the things that are seen, your circumstances and the trials and temptations of this life or the unseen and eternal?
Where are you headed? Are you living and leading in light of eternity or is the path you are on leading you in another more self-oriented direction?
Where are you investing your time and energy? Remember there are only two things that last forever, The Word of God and the souls of men. Do not waste another moment of your life investing in anything less.
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Sharon W. Betters is author of Treasures of Encouragement, Treasures in Darkness, co-author of Treasures of Faith. and co-author with Susan Hunt of Aging with Grace, Flourishing in an Anti-Aging Culture. She is Director of Resource Development and co-founder of MARKINC.org, a non-profit organization that offers help and hope to hurting people. Sharon enjoys quality time with her husband, children, fourteen grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.