Isn’t it funny how you can read something in the Bible, knowing you’ve read it before, but reading it as if for the first time? That happened to me the other day. I was stopped dead in my tracks when I read this verse:

 “Johoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He passed away, to no one’s regret, and was buried…”    2 Chronicles 21:20

 Did you catch that? It broke my heart. Can you imagine living life in such a way that when you died, no one cared? “He passed away, to no one’s regret.” When we lived up in Pennsylvania, the pastor of the church we attended was constantly asking us this question: “If Four Mile (the name of the church) ceased to exist, would anyone notice? Even more importantly, would anyone care?” In other words, he was forcing us to consider: are we making an impact in our families, in the community, and around the world in the Name of and for the glory of Christ? Are people’s lives changing, is the Kingdom of God expanding because we exist?

I can’t tell you how deeply convicting those questions are for me. It’s not about people just missing me because I was a “nice” person who did lots of “good” things. Is my life making such an eternal impact that it will be truly regrettable when I am no longer here? Is The Summit making such an eternal impact that it will be regrettable if we no longer existed?

Is any question more important?