Have you ever thought about what the most valuable piece of real estate in the world is? Is it in the oil-rich Saudi Arabia with the world’s largest oil reserves? Is it in the United States with  Silicon Valley, the world’s leading driver in the Information Technology sector? Is it South Africa with its stockpile of diamonds? Is it in the UK with London being a major melting point for financial services?

Earth’s most valuable piece of real estate is not where one might think of by default. I say that because when we think of value, we tend to think of tangible things. I propose the grave as the most valuable piece of real estate on the Earth. Strange isn’t it? Yes and no! Yes in the sense that the grave often signifies death. How can one attribute immense value where there is no life? That brings us to the ‘no’ part of the equation. I said ‘No’ because there are many tombstones in graveyards all around the globe, that have within them, individuals who died full.

What does dying full mean? I’m referring to those who died with all the limitless potential within them remaining intact. They never reached that point where the river within them began to flow out and touch the lives of others. There are many characters in the bible who would have died full had they not wrestled with God and allowed Him bring out the potential inside of them. Some examples are Gideon, Joshua, Jacob, David, and Peter. Gideon had to overcome his fear and so did all the other men listed earlier. In Gideon’s case, God called him by a different name than what he had began to identify himself with. He saw himself as a coward but the potential inside of him was one of becoming a man of mighty valour. If he had lived life never connecting with God’s divine plan for his life, Gideon would have died full and denied the world around him the liberation that God used him to accomplish.

Can we even begin to fathom how much limitless potential lies buried under the cemetery grounds across the Earth? How many geniuses, men and women of God, leaders, scientists, business men and women, visionaries, and missionaries, have failed to bless their world by dying without releasing that potential within?

It is heartbreaking not only to us but to God also. He is the One who takes His time to make each one of His children fearfully and wonderfully. He is the One who crafts us in our mothers’ wombs and calls us by name to fulfil specific tasks on His behalf whilst here on Earth. He keeps waiting patiently for men and women who would surrender their all, yield completely to Him and allow the rivers of living water fill their bellies and overflow into the lives around them.

There is great satisfaction in dying empty. Paul said that to live is Christ and to die is gain. Either way, we cannot lose with Christ as our centre. Emptying ourselves of His life and love is our paramount objective so that the world around us may see us and know that there is a God of love in Heaven waiting to welcome them back into His warm embrace.