What dominates your life?

This morning I was challenged by one of Ralph Winter's life mottoes: "Nothing that does not occur daily will ever dominate your life." I take it by "dominating," he means consuming our energies as the object of our passion. To say it differently, 'what we are most passionate about will be the thing we commit our life to, and nothing that does not surface every day qualifies to be that thing.'

What dominates your life?

I see see a couple categories of domination. On one hand, there are things we know should be dominating our life. These are values we are convinced are good and right, like faith, or family, or moral principle. On the other hand, there are things which clearly dominate our lives now. Curiously though, what dominates us now  is not necessarily what should. Bad habits, unbalanced attention to the necessary, and other things creep in.

The truth is, is this second category that defines us. A proverb I heard as a child in Mexico comes to mind: Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres ("tell me who you hang out with and I will tell you what sort of person you are"). The same concept applies here: "tell me what dominates your life now, and I will tell you what sort of person you are." What consumes your energies as the object of our passion now is what defines you, what shapes your aspirations and molds your character, what limits your choices and gives you purpose. And your doing what you do will never become doing what you should until your doing what you should becomes doing what you do.

So, what dominates your life now?

Mapping Global Christianity

2.18 Billion Christians worldwide. That is the estimate of nominal Christians reported in a recent study of The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Check out their data and an interactive map at their site.