Just how cliche' does it seem to have become in saying things like "God has a purpose for your life!"? Look at the sales of the "Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren. Yes, we are created to have a craving for purpose in our lives or we become depressed, disillusioned and discouraged. But exactly what do we mean when we talk about purpose? I have a nice Cross brand pen with the inscription Jeremiah 29:11 written on it, does that mean I know purpose? Not!
This note is my last 5 days, a "journey" for purpose.
Currently things are not good for me and many others when it comes to vocation and personal economics. In this time of need and frustration I have been doing my best to not only improve my situation, but seek Godly counsel in the process. Though I do not always do as well as I should, I believe firmly that in times of stress or distress, we need to seek counsel and wisdom from those Godly sources that we know and trust. In the last 5 days God has used friends, a Biblical counselor, teaching pastor, His Word and a few teachings on CD to get my attention and very specifically communicate with me.
The first "issue" at hand is the CAN. I have been influenced quite a bit by some very well intentioned leaders who come from within their own personal experiences in life to impose the way their lives have worked out to be a very "canned" version of how they think other people's lives should look. (this is not referring to absolute issues of character, morality, etc.) Don't get me wrong there is tremendous power in the victory and success of one's life being shared with another, but NOT when we come with a "canned" approach to the way we seek to help others. Just because one person's victory came through a certain set of circumstances and situations, that cannot always be considered status quo! When we do not give adequate attention to the backgrounds, experiences, hurts, habits, hangups, tragedies, blessings, etc. that makes of the tapestry of a unique person, we can hurt them in the process of trying to help.
We are individuals, all created in the image of God, but with Him being the Artist, the diversity is beyond human comprehension. I have had to see that one man's path probably will not be mine and I also must be OK with that!
So, no more canned goods when dealing with people. But what we can identify are pieces of the puzzle and how they might begin to fit together so we can avoid so-called purpose that is perhaps scripted or "canned" and go from the good in life to God's very best! We all have them! Pieces of the puzzle can range from family background, to education, to church home. The pieces include life and death. They encompass all of the uniqueness of the path God has placed us on and we have to see and understand where and how the pieces begin to fit. Not in a general sense, but in a very specific fashion if we are to know the abounding joy of being exactly where He wants us to be, doing precisely what He created us to do!
One of my favorite verses to share with people from the Bible is Ephesians 2:10 (but one of the hardest for me to practice). "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." I focus in on the word "workmanship" . The word here in the original language of Greek is poiēma and it is literally "a work of art". Now God, creator of the incredible and amazing (both words that are not adequate) of the Universe we live in has also created us as a piece of beautiful art. Now, if I really knew that deep in my spirit as I should, my life would be always bubbling with never ending joy. But I lose sight of how incredible this really is.
I have a puzzle in my apartment that is framed. Two ladies from a dementia unit at a nursing home gave it to me almost 20 years ago, and I still keep it on my wall. It is beautiful. It is a red barn that sits in a springtime field full of white blossoms with snow capped mountains as the backdrop. Beautiful! But some human created that puzzle. God, Creator of all things we can ever see that demonstrate beauty, designed the puzzle that is my life and yours and He plans for that puzzle to be completed. Consider how proud I am of my framed puzzle, yet it is no trophy of grace that has come from depravity to a demonstration of God's grace, love, mercy and power. Through Christ, that is who and what we are!
So I am pondering this puzzle thing all weekend and how I need to take a deliberate and concerted look at my life and how it all fits together. As of Sunday morning I am still undecided where I will attend for Easter since I am away from my home church. I choose a particular church in Sumter not having any idea what the sermon might be and it is on "connecting the dots" of our lives in order to see God in the past, present, and future. The message was almost an exact replication of Thursday's conversation, except using dots and not puzzle pieces. "OK Lord I know I am hard headed but I am hearing you here!" JUST DO IT!
What I have decided to do is attempt to create a puzzle on my computer that has individual pieces that I can tag in a word or two that will directly associate with a time, situation, circumstance, new life, death, work and ministry, education, family (just examples, no "canned" approach!) and visually put it together to become not only a marker of God's sovereign hand in my life, but what I need to see this moment and where it appears His will would take me in the future. I am expecting a life changing week or so. I am giving myself until next Wednesday the 22nd to get it together. Care to join me?
Please, though so important to follow the wisdom and counsel of those before us and around us, but never allow anyone the opportunity to make their personal experience yours (or mine) to the point of losing self. This has been so liberating for me! I am NOT bound to what God has done, is doing and will do in the next person's life. His plan for Philip B. Fidler is 1,000 times more wonderful, specific and artistic than I would ever consider for myself! I feel that it is only by embracing this truth that I can begin to connect, very personally, the pieces of God's puzzle for my life that includes all the wonderful intricacies that make me who I am in Christ and who He created me to be!
We all have unique spiritual gifts, talents, natural abilities, experiences, and lives. I am not you and praise God you are not me. But WE are who WE are because HE is who HE is! WE are the intricate work of the Artist who created all!
Monday, April 13, 2009
like a sheep (or a bull)?
"He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth" (esv)
John Gill, the great theologian of the 18th century, wrote on this verse: " He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth."
If, we as Christians, are called to be Christ-like in our lives, how does a verse like this apply? There are perhaps many implications, but one in particular that relates to recent events in my personal live. Several weeks ago I was in a situation where I felt as if my back was against the wall. I had made some poor choices in a situation that was then discussed in a manner where I believed I was threatened. At the time I saw this discussion that took place as being underhanded and behind my back. I was wrong, but why not come to me? Why go to someone else about my poor choices.
I see it from a different perspective today and radical reconciliation and restoration has taken place. But what about the way I reacted? The mental image that comes to mind is the cliche of the bull in a china shop. Or perhaps like that of a rodeo bull. Yeah, lets take that analogy and run with it. It was like I had been placed within a chute, smacked on the rear end, and I began to snort, scrape my hooves and buck like a bull named Foo Man Chu. I was anything but Christ-like. Why, when I feel smacked, do I tend to immediately transform into a bull bent on the pursuit of self vindication? Get out of my way or else!
With Jesus as our example, He was being led off to the slaughter to be put to death for the "crimes" that you and I would commit. He was totally innocent, I cannot stake that claim. As Charles Spurgeon says, even our most righteous moments in this life are still stained and tainted with sin. Not so with Jesus, yet He did not become a bull, but a lamb! He did not buck, snort, stomp and rant, He humbly allowed himself to become a slaughtered sheep for you and I.
Man I tend to jump out there and shoot off at the mouth in defense of what I perceive to be a threat or if I feel my toes (or hooves) are being stepped on. If I truly take Christ as my example, a thousand things need to be changed in my life, but first of all I can be silent, allow God to be God, know that He can right all wrongs and that he does not need me to create more chaos and pain when the bull has been slapped on the backside!
Oh Lord help me to be rid of myself and willing to become more like You!
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