What is a defining moment?
When we talk about defining moments, we usually mean a sharp fork in the road or sudden interruption — a moment in our lives we can look back and say, “That’s when everything changed.”
Maybe a moment like choosing a career or major, or enlisting in the military. Maybe it was agreeing that someone else was your person and marrying them.
Maybe it was deciding to do the harder thing because you knew it was the right thing to do.
There can be big ones and little ones but I believe the compelling characteristic is that defining moments are choices.
In the story of Lazarus, Jesus could have stayed where he was, but instead returned to Judea. As the disciples warned, “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?” John 11:8
Jesus went to Judea to save his friend and to prove his authority over death, knowing that he would be arrested, tried and executed. BUT he also knew that, like Lazarus, he would leave the tomb.
In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”. Luke 24:5-7
Something to prayerfully think about today: What have been the defining moments in your life?
