The Three Questions

March 28, 2020

By David Chang, Director of Ministry Support

Recently I re-read a short story by Leo Tolstoy called The Three Questions. It’s a story about a king who wanted to find the secret to better leading his country. He searched the kingdom looking for the answers to these three questions:

1.  When is the most important time?

2.  Who are the most important people?

3.  What is the most important thing to do?

Spoiler alert––the king discovered the answers! 

And they are:

1.  It is this very moment.

2.  It is the person you are with.

3.  Do good for the person you are with.

I love that because it inspires and instructs me that the most important time is now, the most important people are those that are with me now, and the most important thing I can do is to do good for them.

One day in-between meetings, I felt God saying to me, “The most important time is right now, the most important person is you, and the most important thing for me is to do good for you.” This rocked me. With all of eternity stretching to the past and the future, God considers this very moment with me important. With all the people in the world, I am important. With everything that God can do, He wants to do good for me.

During this Coronavirus time, my prayer is that you feel how God loves spending time with you, that you know you are important to Him, and trust that He is doing good for you. I’m also praying that you would treat the people you come across in the same way, be fully present with them because they are important to you, and do them good.

“For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration— “plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 (CSB)