I begin with this title hoping to peak your curiosity. Truth be told, there is not much talk about sperm on a Christian blog, or any blog for that matter. It stems from a sermon I once heard from author Tony Campolo, while talking to teenagers he used an illustration that went something like this…
Did you ever want to see what a sperm looks like all grown up? Then look at yourself in the mirror. Yes, the truth is hard, but at one point in our lives we were all once a sperm. Not only that, but we were one in five million sperm. And there was a race down a long dark tunnel. And there was an egg at the finish line. And you won! It was you against five million and you came through with the victory! You made the Olympics look like nothing!
And as funny as it is, it is also science, and it is also God’s plan. We hear all of these amazing stories about people when they were born, how because of one rare disease or another they had a two percent chance to live and they came through. We look at these people and say, well, they really must be here for a reason. But what about the fact that all of us, each and every one of us, had a one in five million chance of being born and we came through? What about that? What about the fact that each and every one of us is a divine miracle?
Some people may try and say that things were just random, and maybe that is true, but it is not what I believe. You know what I believe? You are not a mistake, you are not here by accident. Think about it, if your mother had a headache that night, you might not even be here today. (Think about that one, you’ll get it later)
Don’t try and tell me that your life is a mistake because the chances were so low, the deck was completely stacked against you and still, somehow, you can through. And not only somehow, but for some reason, and I believe it was for a reason, a very specific reason. And the Lord confirms this truth in Jeremiah chapter one when he tells the prophet, “before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and set you apart and appointed you”.
For Jeremiah, that appointment was to be a prophet among the nations. But for you, and for me, and for all of us, there is no telling what that appointment is. But what we do know is that for you, and for me, and for all of us, there is an appoint. There is a divine appoint that God has placed upon your life, no matter who you are, and your responsibility, and the reason you are here is to discover that divine appointment, and to devote your life to following and fulfilling it.
When you can commit yourself to doing that, I believe you will see God begin to work powerfully in your life. Because the other great thing about your divine calling is that God does not just pick us out from the sperm pool, choose the calling, and then leave us on our own. The Lord desires for you to find your calling so that He can partner with you in creating a better world. He desires for His Holy Spirit to dwell within us and to work through us in order to do His redemptive work in this world. He is active, He is moving, and He is in love with his children, desiring what’s best for them.
I wrote something a few summers ago for camp. That summer, I felt that the Lord was calling me to storm the hearts of these students and take back their identities for the Lord. In process of praying about how to go about that, the Lord breathed two spoken word pieces into my heart, one for the boys, and one for the girls. They have since become infamous, at least among the hundred or so people who own them, as a source of encouragement for those who are struggling with their purpose or their self worth, and I would like to share them with you now.
I share these words with you, knowing that they are meant to be spoken, but I pray that as you read them and pray over them that the Holy Spirit would speak them into your heart and that you would know without a shadow of a doubt that this is exactly who the Lord has made you to be, no matter who you think you are. Even when you were a tiny sperm, the Lord looked in a school of five million and He point you out and said, “I want this one. I choose you.”
(click on the link below to see the poems)
GUYS
GIRLS
-jon
Did you ever want to see what a sperm looks like all grown up? Then look at yourself in the mirror. Yes, the truth is hard, but at one point in our lives we were all once a sperm. Not only that, but we were one in five million sperm. And there was a race down a long dark tunnel. And there was an egg at the finish line. And you won! It was you against five million and you came through with the victory! You made the Olympics look like nothing!
And as funny as it is, it is also science, and it is also God’s plan. We hear all of these amazing stories about people when they were born, how because of one rare disease or another they had a two percent chance to live and they came through. We look at these people and say, well, they really must be here for a reason. But what about the fact that all of us, each and every one of us, had a one in five million chance of being born and we came through? What about that? What about the fact that each and every one of us is a divine miracle?
Some people may try and say that things were just random, and maybe that is true, but it is not what I believe. You know what I believe? You are not a mistake, you are not here by accident. Think about it, if your mother had a headache that night, you might not even be here today. (Think about that one, you’ll get it later)
Don’t try and tell me that your life is a mistake because the chances were so low, the deck was completely stacked against you and still, somehow, you can through. And not only somehow, but for some reason, and I believe it was for a reason, a very specific reason. And the Lord confirms this truth in Jeremiah chapter one when he tells the prophet, “before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and set you apart and appointed you”.
For Jeremiah, that appointment was to be a prophet among the nations. But for you, and for me, and for all of us, there is no telling what that appointment is. But what we do know is that for you, and for me, and for all of us, there is an appoint. There is a divine appoint that God has placed upon your life, no matter who you are, and your responsibility, and the reason you are here is to discover that divine appointment, and to devote your life to following and fulfilling it.
When you can commit yourself to doing that, I believe you will see God begin to work powerfully in your life. Because the other great thing about your divine calling is that God does not just pick us out from the sperm pool, choose the calling, and then leave us on our own. The Lord desires for you to find your calling so that He can partner with you in creating a better world. He desires for His Holy Spirit to dwell within us and to work through us in order to do His redemptive work in this world. He is active, He is moving, and He is in love with his children, desiring what’s best for them.
I wrote something a few summers ago for camp. That summer, I felt that the Lord was calling me to storm the hearts of these students and take back their identities for the Lord. In process of praying about how to go about that, the Lord breathed two spoken word pieces into my heart, one for the boys, and one for the girls. They have since become infamous, at least among the hundred or so people who own them, as a source of encouragement for those who are struggling with their purpose or their self worth, and I would like to share them with you now.
I share these words with you, knowing that they are meant to be spoken, but I pray that as you read them and pray over them that the Holy Spirit would speak them into your heart and that you would know without a shadow of a doubt that this is exactly who the Lord has made you to be, no matter who you think you are. Even when you were a tiny sperm, the Lord looked in a school of five million and He point you out and said, “I want this one. I choose you.”
(click on the link below to see the poems)
GUYS
GIRLS
-jon
