My glory is great

My glory is great? You gotta be kidding. This is what King David said of himself in the third person: "His glory is great in Your salvation; You have laid majesty and splendor upon him; For You have made him to be blessings forever; You have made him glad with rejoicing in Your presence" (Psalms 21:5-6). Perhaps you and I may feel this doesn't apply to me. I don't have majesty and splendor. So let's not kid about glory.

But recently as I am enjoying these verses, I echo David in his feelings: "[My] glory is great in Your salvation."

Before I knew the Lord, I did not have much hope; I was living day to day. My joys in life were few: hanging out with friends, shooting basketball on quiet Saturday mornings, etc. I did not have much desire to be rich or successful; I didn't see the point of it. I didn't have much desire to live long. For what? As long as I could die quietly and painlessly in my sleep, it didn't matter whether it was tomorrow or next day. Surely, I did not want to be found old in a nursing home.

But after I met Jesus in February of 1993, for the first time in my life, I felt as though I had a purpose in my life. At least I felt as though I had a reason to live. To me, this is my glory--I am no longer living a common life. Without the Lord, I may still be in Chicago, in a suburban home, a BMW (my dream car), and being cynical about life. What is a cynic living a suburban life? Total contradiction? It may be, but I could see myself living this kind of contradiction.

Now I have the living water. The purpose of my life is to be a little Jesus, gushing out the living water to people around me (John 4). People are dying of thirst in their emptiness, their sinfulness, and their religion prohibiting them to live a life that God meant all of us to live. But in His salvation, God has brought me and continually bringing me out of my emptiness, my sinfulness and my religion (stuff I do as a Christian without God) to live a life that is much more meaningful, the life of glory.