Purpose Driven Life, Ch. 5: Life as Test, Trust, Temp. Assignment

[klsiegel320]

Point to Ponder: Life is a test and a trust.

Verse to Remember: "Unless you are faithful in small matters, you won't be faithful in large ones." Luke 16:10a (NLT)

Question to Consider: What has happened to me recently that I now realize was a test from God? What are the greatest matters God has entrusted to me?

I'm having a little trouble with this one. I don't think God dumps us into situations, like some kind of cosmic drill sargeant putting us through the spiritual equivalent of a Marine Corps obstacle course. I don't think God "throws things" at us, or makes bad things happen to us to test our loyalty.

I do think we face challenges. I do think we face choices. It is challenging to live faithfully in these times, and difficult to choose from among the many things that may all look like viable options (or for that matter, from the many things that all look like equally bad choices). I think God allows us to be tested, not that God designs the test like some kind of cosmic SAT for us to take and pass in order for him to love us. And I think God allows us to choose freely how we will respond to the challenges and choices we face...and continues to love us, and to gently invite us to keep growing, keep trying, keep looking.

I'm not entirely sure what the greatest matters are that God has entrusted to me. I know some of the ministries I've been given - to write, to sing; to teach, apparently, at the Hearthstone Paths conference in October in Maryland. I'm not sure we can know which matters are greatest. I think maybe it's more important to treat all matters entrusted to us, however trivial-seeming, as God's matters. Great or small, I think that matters more.

Comments

Chapter Five

[readinginbed.livejournal.com]

It is hard sometimes to reconcile the Old Testament God with the New Testament God. I think of the God who would test us as the OT God; the NT God is no less worthy of respect, but seems to command more love than fear, perhaps because the NT is about the life of Jesus and those who came after him. Did the nature of God change? The Bible tells us he is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Did the nature of his relationship to us change? Or just our understanding? Big questions.

". . . every second is a growth opportunity to deepen your character, to demonstrate love, or to depend on God." I get the author's point, and not to be facetious, but some seconds are going to be spent sneezing, clipping one's toenails, or sleeping -- none of those seem to present much in the way of opportunity for growth.

This chapter asked "how [I] picture life. . ." and stated that that image is our life metaphor. The image I chose was not remarkably creative -- a journey. Although I haven't read it, I've been captivated by the title of Madeleine's book "Friends for the Journey".

Non sequitur, relating to the earlier chapter on focus - I was watching the Today show [probably a couple of weeks ago now]. Rick Husband's widow was on and shared a family devotional video her husband had made prior to commanding the Columbia mission. She stated how difficult it was for him to find the time to do it with the crush of duties preceding the launch, but that he'd found the time because it was really important to him to do this for his children. Very touching and meaningful.

Re: the question to consider -- I suppose there are "tests" or challenges that come up at work, such as dealing with demanding patrons. Don't always do as well with those as I should. Regarding the "greatest matters" entrusted to me, my marriage/my husband came to mind. He is so gifted, but is a sensitive soul. By being the most loving wife I can be, I can help him use his talents to the fullest.

Re: Chapter Five

[klsiegel.livejournal.com]

I tend to think it's our understanding of God that changes, as we grow more mature and realize ever more clearly that we can't ever fully define or understand God. So I tend to think, when I read a story in which God is doing something that seems very ugly or manipulative, that the author is anthropomorphizing, making God be more "like us."

Not to say God doesn't play tricks. I am very comfortable with the Native American god Coyote, who is a trickster. In a way - this is a stretch, but stay with me - he's a bit like Jesus. He punctures arrogance; he deflates people who are puffed up; he prods the good to better deeds...sometimes not entirely with their cooperation.

Now, I remember a certain time, about four years ago. A friend had just died, and I'd attended his burial, and I didn't have a chance to get to anything else at the monastery all summer. I read a description of a retreat that I thought would be really great, held over Labor Day weekend; so I signed up.

It turned out to be an entirely silent insight meditation weekend - three days of sitting zazen. My first visit back to the monastery after the burial of my friend was going to be three days of sitting absolutely as still as possible and breathing.

I am very sure that the description I read was not the description everyone else read. I am also very sure that I was supposed to be at that retreat, to discover that the absolute homeopathic remedy for my inability to focus for longer than ten seconds at a time is exactly this practice of stillness and silence. And God knew that if I read the description everyone else read, I would not go. But I needed to go. So...God tricked me.

I suspect that happens as we open ourselves more to being led, to not needing to know the "why" of everything but simply going where we're led, trusting the leader. I'd had great experience the year before in doing just that, and I think that openness gives God a way in, a means of getting our attention that otherwise wouldn't work.

After all, whacking people upside the head with a cosmic clue-by-four when they aren't really open to what you have to say in the first place is just being mean. And it doesn't really effectively get their attention. They just feel picked on, and it doesn't really improve their listening skills any.

Which I guess is my way of explaining why God doesn't just "fix it" all the time. Just fixing it without our cooperation (however reluctant) would be forcing the issue, and it wouldn't really solve whatever the fundamental problem is.

Which is also probably entirely off-topic, by now...