Highest and best use

When I was a child, I dreamed of becoming a rancher. I wasn't interested in ranch work, or really any work back then, I just loved the idea of having my own land.

“Yes, this is my river,” I would say to people as they envied my empire. “And those are my cows. Somewhere over that hill is my private lake,” I imagined myself saying as a grown up. I would look like Tom Selleck under a tall cowboy hat. That was the plan.

At 43, I look more like Danny DeVito, and am trying hard to pay off my half acre lot near Joshua.

“This is my birdbath,” I say to people who really are not interested. “And somewhere over the lawn gnome is an empty bottle of Miracle Grow.”

I don’t know much about real estate, but I do know a few years back the market crashed like the Hindenburg. I didn't loose anything because I don’t own much — it appears that feeding the poor, preaching in prisons and writing a newspaper column might not have been a good financial strategy. Who knew?

Part of the proper lingo with the sale of any property is a term called “highest and best use.” It has to do with the use of the property, and what makes it the most efficient and profitable. An example would be an agricultural piece of land being developed into a shopping center rather than an onion field. The point being, you can get a lot bigger bang out of your buck if it is used in “the best” way.

This week’s sip from the Master’s cup comes caffeinated with a word on highest and best use.

The highest and best use of your heart, your mind and all of your life is to be of the Kingdom, for the Kingdom and by the Kingdom. The Kingdom is everything under the dominion of the King. You don’t have to be churchy to expand the Kingdom anymore than you have to be an evangelist to give the good news. All you have to do is let Jesus be your King instead of being your homeboy or your copilot.

The best use for our lives is in the hands of the King himself. Who better than He can lead us into what we were made for — since He is the one who made us. It is better to be useful to the Lord than to be used up by this world. The highest and best and biggest bang we can get out of our lives is when we play a significant role in bringing Heaven to this Earth.

“All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable All things are lawful, but not all things edify.” — 1 Corinthians 10:23

Troy pastors Open Door near Joshua and can be found at www.opendoorministries.org and www.troybrewer.com.