by Pastor Joel Lawler

The death of Ronald Reagan impacted me far more than I would have imagined that it would.  I was only ten when he was first elected and just old enough to vote upon his leaving office.  The one thing that I can remember for sure was the day he was shot.  My older brother had picked me up from school and told me that the President had been shot.  It seemed unreal.  After all he was the President, how could anyone shoot him?

The impact of his death transcended politics.  What I found extraordinary was the impact that one man's life had on such a great number of people.  It also is amazing how he changed the course of history.

Watching the footage of him and his life, I was struck by how very common he seemed.  He always seemed to smile and very rarely appear as if he were under stress.  He was anything but common.  He left a huge mark by the way he chose to live his life.

Deep in the heart of each one of us, I believe there is a desire to have such an impact on the world we live in.  Not that we want to be President or wield that kind of power but I believe we would all like to have the kind of life that would shut down an entire country upon our parting.

We all want to count.  We want our lives to matter.  Each and every one of us wants to, at the end of our lives, look back and see that we fulfilled some sort of purpose.  We want to know that we made a difference.

I know that this is possible.  In fact I believe that not only is it achievable but it was what we were born to do. 

God crafted each and every one of us for a specific task.  Woven within our DNA is a divine plan for who we are and what we are to do. 

Psalm 139:14 says "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.  My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

God was intentional when he made us.  Take a look at nature and see His handiwork.  It is breathtaking how intricate and detailed the workmanship of God is.  His crowning achievement was man. 

From our very limited perspective, it is easy to believe in coincidence, luck or happenstance.  When we wisely seek the truth about who and what we are and why we came to be,  we begin to see that God put all of this in place exactly as He wanted it to be.  Every moment of our life was written down before time

began.  It is all a part of God's mighty work and masterpiece.

While very few of us can follow in the footsteps of such men as Ronald Reagan, we all can make a tremendous difference in the lives around us. 

If we give our lives back to God and trust Him, He will accomplish that which He originally set out to upon creating us.  He will make our lives extraordinary.