My Ultimate Why? - Part 1
As of recent, I've been interested in what we call personality. I can be quite blind to things that are obvious because I'm looking for something deeper, so these generalizations of dispositions are helpful. I took the DISC test upon entering the CNPC and was classified as the Creative Pattern. Part of my profile describes how my "desire for tangible results is counterbalanced by an equally strong drive for perfection". If I were to show this struggle through a biblically framed question I would ask, "What do marriage and beaches and four-wheelers and the internet and MacBooks and blogs and LOST and shoes and Jack Johnson and Jack's frozen pizzas and beds and anything else in our modern world have to do with obeying Jesus Christ? In other words, do my life and the things in my life (tangible results) reflect Jesus Christ (perfection)? This is my ultimate WHY??? question.
Here's a little history. When I was converted my senior year of high school, I believed the Bible was the only truth as it stated God's very Word. And this is totally true. What also happened at that time is that I then questioned absolutely everything I believed before, to the best of my ability, and now hung all my beliefs on the bedrock of Scripture. The things that became important and vital and of worth to me were the things I read about. A few months after becoming a Christian, I began to read through the Bible going from Matthew to Revelation, then Genesis to Malachi on a year track. So I read firstly about Jesus Christ, then the ministry of the gospel through the apostles after He had risen from the dead. What I took away from that was, "The kingdom of God is the most important thing on earth." When I read through the Old Testament, it was more like a history book because I didn't exactly see how it all pointed to Christ. So I stuck with the New Testament and Jesus command to "Seek first the kingdom of God". However, one thing I didn't question was the importance of being a hard worker, which my parents had taught me. So if the most important thing to do was seek God's kingdom, I needed to work hard at it. Now, I must clarify my opinion of God's kingdom. The kingdom of God was helping people to worship Jesus Christ with all their life and this inevitably meant giving up "their kingdom". Looking around I saw twenty-somethings going to movies, playing video games, IMing their friends, jamming to music, finding someone to date, and really just wanting to have some fun. While there were others drinking, sleeping around, and getting high, these were the real, but obvious transgressions. I became concerned with the whole direction of our lives, not so much the individual sins. You can't care for every orphan and widow, but out of the overflow of your life do you care for them in general? It seemed to me that my evangelical friends and I maybe weren't committing gross, explicit sins, but sins of omission by doing our thing. And thus, how should I interpret the uses of movies and music and time?
I realized this is going to be a multi-post series before I can really get to where I'd like. If you find this helpful in any way or are curious as to where I'm going, please encourage me in this endeavor.
Here's a little history. When I was converted my senior year of high school, I believed the Bible was the only truth as it stated God's very Word. And this is totally true. What also happened at that time is that I then questioned absolutely everything I believed before, to the best of my ability, and now hung all my beliefs on the bedrock of Scripture. The things that became important and vital and of worth to me were the things I read about. A few months after becoming a Christian, I began to read through the Bible going from Matthew to Revelation, then Genesis to Malachi on a year track. So I read firstly about Jesus Christ, then the ministry of the gospel through the apostles after He had risen from the dead. What I took away from that was, "The kingdom of God is the most important thing on earth." When I read through the Old Testament, it was more like a history book because I didn't exactly see how it all pointed to Christ. So I stuck with the New Testament and Jesus command to "Seek first the kingdom of God". However, one thing I didn't question was the importance of being a hard worker, which my parents had taught me. So if the most important thing to do was seek God's kingdom, I needed to work hard at it. Now, I must clarify my opinion of God's kingdom. The kingdom of God was helping people to worship Jesus Christ with all their life and this inevitably meant giving up "their kingdom". Looking around I saw twenty-somethings going to movies, playing video games, IMing their friends, jamming to music, finding someone to date, and really just wanting to have some fun. While there were others drinking, sleeping around, and getting high, these were the real, but obvious transgressions. I became concerned with the whole direction of our lives, not so much the individual sins. You can't care for every orphan and widow, but out of the overflow of your life do you care for them in general? It seemed to me that my evangelical friends and I maybe weren't committing gross, explicit sins, but sins of omission by doing our thing. And thus, how should I interpret the uses of movies and music and time?
I realized this is going to be a multi-post series before I can really get to where I'd like. If you find this helpful in any way or are curious as to where I'm going, please encourage me in this endeavor.
Perhaps I'm a little late (lol), but I'll go ahead and say I'm interested in where you're going. I read part of part 2 and just may say something about the Rich Young Ruler account later. . .
Lindsay (somebody who just found this blog today; not anyone you know in person) (Comment this)
Lane
PS How'd you find my blog? (Comment this)