Romans 12:1

Josiah Parr

The 29th of April 2011 saw an historical union between Prince William and Kate Middleton. Every newspaper and news station was awash with even the most insignificant piece of information about the couples wedding preparation. Souvenirs marking the occasion were sold around the world with items ranging from garden gnomes with the faces of Kate and Will, tea towels and even mugs that were made incorrectly with the face of Prince Harry in place of William. The world had wedding fever!

I have to admit my wife and I got caught up in the excitement and went to London to see if we could get a glimpse of the royal wedding. So on rainy Friday morning with my six-month-old baby and parents who were visiting from Australia we embarked the train to go to London.

We arrived in London with little trouble until we got onto the tubes, which were heaving with people with the same glimmer of hope of seeing something worth seeing.

We arrived at Green Park and were herded towards Hyde Park. We walked in crowds of thousands with a real sense of excitement only to be abruptly stopped in our tracks. No one in the crowd knew why we had been stopped; we just stood with anticipation waiting to see what was about to happen.

The crowd bustled and pushed and people began climbing lampposts to see what they could see. Many had periscopes to see above the crowds and excitement began to brim. Down further along the road a roar began to erupt as something began to happen. No one was quite sure what they were screaming for but it seemed we all got swept away in the moment.

In front of us were horses with soldiers in full regalia and then a carriage, (a beautiful ornate horse drawn carriage). I thought, wow we are in luck we are going to get a chance to see something after all this!!

The Carriage was empty!

Imagine getting so excited about an empty carriage.

In life we often get excited for an opportunity to escape the mundane and to reach out and touch the incredible; but often we look for these experiences in things, which are essentially empty. Things with no eternal value like watching our favorite soap, football team or royal wedding.

In Romans 12:1 it says: "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life-your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life-and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you."

It's when we fix our attention on God, that life gets its meaning and definition.

God's plan is to use who He has made us to be in the dullest moments of our life to prove His goodness. We need to recognize what He wants from us wherever we are and whatever we are doing.