Purpose Driven Life: Day 7

THE REASON FOR EVERYTHING



POINT TO PONDER:

It's all for him.


VERSE TO REMEMBER:

"For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever."

---Romans 11:36


RICK WARREN'S THOUGHTS

The ultimate goal of the universe is to show the glory of God. It is the reason for everything that exists, including you. God made it all for his glory.

God's glory is best seen in Jesus Christ. He, the Light of the world, illuminates God's nature.

All sin, AT ITS ROOT, is failing to give God glory. It is loving anything else more than God.

We bring glory to God by: (i) worshipping him, (ii) loving other believers, (iii) becoming like Christ, (iv) serving others with our gifts, and (v) telling others about him.


D-MONK'S THOUGHTS:

Bringing glory to God IS our purpose for being. This is the only act that will bring purpose and meaning to our lives. To the extent we order our lives consistently with this purpose, we will find joy, peace, and serenity. To the extent we try to serve any other purpose we will find disappointment, loss, and emptiness.

All of this comes down to a fundamental question: Do I believe in a personal Creator? If so, I will find my life's meaning and purpose in honoring that Creator's wishes and designs for me.

If God is, and if God is involved in our world, then it is to God that we should turn to find meaning. If God is not, then we will not find meaning here (and perhaps there will be no meaning for us anywhere).

But if God is not, how is it that the human experience is one which seeks so desperately for meaning and purpose?

D-Monk believes that God is and D-Monk is doing his best to serve the Creator who gave him the gift of life.

The Addict's Plea

"Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."

--Matthew 8:2

Purpose Driven Life: Day 6

LIFE IS A TEMPORARY ASSIGNMENT




POINT TO PONDER:

This world is not my home.


VERSE TO REMEMBER:

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor. 4:18 (NIV))


RICK WARREN'S THOUGHTS:

To make the best use of your life, you must never forget two truths:

* First, compared with eternity, life is extremely brief;

* Second, earth is only a temporary residence.

Your identity is in eternity and your homeland is heaven. When you grasp this truth, you will stop worrying about "having it all" on earth. God is very blunt about the danger of living for the here and now and adopting the values, priorities, and lifestyles of the world around us.

Realizing that life on earth is just a temporary assignment should radically alter your values. Eternal values, not temporal ones, should become the deciding factors for your decisions.


D-MONK'S THOUGHTS:

Again, Warren has put his finger on the cause of much frustration in our world. We tend to live each day as if our own pleasures are the purpose for our lives. Yet such lifestyles often lead to frustration. Why?

Does self-seeking lead to frustration only for those who aren't good at it, or does self-seeking lead to frustration because we were designed and created for something else? As a believer, I tend to think the latter is true.

We weren't designed for self-seeking. We were designed to bring glory to God while on earth and to be re-united with God in eternity. In this sense, life IS just a temporary assignment.

But I caution against too much emphasis on the life as a test thinking. I don't think the fact that life is a temporary assignment is the same thing as saying life is a test. If life is a test, we are all in trouble because we spend most of it living as self-seekers. But life as a temporary assignment may mean that life is a field of learning. We have been created and placed in time to experience things that we could not as eternal beings. We are here to discover the pain and depth of separation from the source of life so that we can truly enjoy the fullness of communion with our Creator as we move to eternity.

Life is a temporary assignment. Take advantage of that and learn to love God here and now!

Purpose Driven Life: Day 5

SEEING LIFE FROM GOD'S VIEW



POINT TO PONDER:

Life is a test and a trust.


VERSE TO REMEMBER

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much." Luke 16:10a (NIV)


RICK WARREN'S THOUGHTS

The way you see your life shapes your life.

How you define life determines your destiny. Your perspective will influence how you invest your time, spend your money, use your talents, and value your relationships.

To fulfill the purposes God made you for, you will have to challenge conventional wisdom and replace it with the biblical metaphors of life.

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect." [Rom. 12:2]

According to Rick Warren, the Bible offers three metaphors that teach us God's view of life:

i. life is a test;
ii. life is a trust;
iii. life is a temporary assignment.

As to Life on Earth Being a Test:

Character is both developed and revealed by tests, and ALL of life is a test.

"God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it." [1 Cor. 10:13b - NRSV]

As to Life on Earth Being a Trust:

Our time on earth and our energy, intelligence, opportunities, relationships, and resources are all gifts from God that he has entrusted to our care and managements. We are stewards of whatever God gives us.

When God created Adam and Eve, he entrusted the care of his creation to them and appointed them trustees of his property.

"God blessed them and said to them, `Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.'" [Gen. 1:28]

Most people fail to realize that money is both a test and a trust from God.

"So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?" [Luke 16:11]


D-MONK'S THOUGHTS:

I think Rick Warren has really struck a chord in underscoring that our view of what life is will determine how we spend our time, energy, and talents each day. If I think that life has no underlying purpose, then I will structure each day so as to bring myself the maximum amount of pleasure regardless of the effects on relationships or the well-being of others. If I think that life is a contest, I will strive to succeed and be better than those around me. If life is a gift, I will treat it and those around me with an attitude of respect and gratitude.

I am not certain about the metaphor of life being a test. I think we are tested during life (does anybody truly doubt that we are tested?), but I don't think that a test is the ultimate goal for life. If life were simply a test, presumably some of us could pass (or it wouldn't be a true test). But Christ's redemptive act on the cross suggests otherwise. So if life includes a series of test, I think that these are only the means to another purpose.

The trust model of life really appeals to me. Everything I have comes from God and should be treated as his, not mine. All of creation and all of those other people in my life should be treated with the greatest of respect and humility and each new day should present me with the opportunity to give thanks.

But even the "Life as a Trust" model does not give a satisfactory explanation for life's purpose. It is clear from the Bible that our world is a creation in time. But it is also clear that the events taking place within time are of less importance than what is to come outside of and beyond time. So preserving God's creation as a trust may explain some aspects of life, but D-Monk thinks there still must be more to finding life's purpose.

"Illegal Aliens Smuggled into Clear Lake, Iowa Under Cover of Darkness!"

The picture would have been comical. An expired 1995 Chevy Suburban perched on the back of a flat-bed tow truck. Unidentified liquids leaking from various areas of the truck's underbelly. The tow truck driver and a family of five all crammed into to the two-person cab.

This was how the addict's weekend started. The addict was scheduled to give a business presentation in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on Friday morning. The addict invited his family along to make the trip more "fun," with the plan of driving on to Chicago after his business meeting.



But a "funny" thing happened on the way to Cedar Rapids. The addict's aging Suburban bit the dust. About fifty miles into Iowa (driving south from Minnesota on I-35) the transmission went out. This was not a shock since the Suburban did have 118,000 miles on it, but it was still unexpected.

So at 7:30 on Thursday evening, the addict and his family found themselves stranded in the cold and the dark on the side of the highway in rural Iowa. And nobody asked, "Is this heaven?"

After a call to the insurance company, the addict managed to get hold of a towing company. Bob-the-tow-truck-driver was coming to the rescue! Bob was really great. He made the situation an adventure for the addict's children and brought a great amount of cheer to a challenging situation.



The family spent the night in Clear Lake, Iowa, a town known only as the site where Buddy Holly's plane crashed.



The addict did his two-hour presentation by phone on Friday morning and everything seemed to work out.

On Friday afternoon, the addict traded in a dead Suburban as down payment on a new minivan. Not brand new -- rather a 2003 Mazda with 35,000 miles. Still, it was new to the addict and his family and the addict believes he got a good deal.



If life is a test, this was a good one. And all the addict can say is that he is proud of his family who passed the test with flying colors!

A Word for the Day

Thus says the Lord God: Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd; and scattered, they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep were scattered, they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill; my sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with no one to search or seek for them.



For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

---Ezekiel 34:2-6,11-16.




So again Jesus said to them, `Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

`I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away--and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.'

---John 10:7-15.

Panic in the Skies!

The addict was traveling for business recently when he had an unpleasant experience. An uninvited panic attack in the sky!

On Friday the 13th, at 5:31pm, the addict experienced a sudden onset of extreme anxiety. The addict was on a flight from Orlando to Minneapolis. He was seated in the window seat in a full row. Next to the addict was a man traveling to Montana and next to him was a young woman with a two-month old baby.

The addict was very tired when the flight took off. He had just flown into Orlando the night before to give a speech scheduled at 7:00 am local time. Since the addict lives in the Central time zone, this meant that he was speaking at the equivalent of 6:00am on his body clock.

And, of course, the addict did not go to bed any earlier to prepare for this early morning engagement. The addict, instead, got less than five hours sleep before speaking to a packed house. And so, when the addict boarded the return flight to Minneapolis, he was very tired.

So the addict fell asleep on the plane. Asleep in a window seat, crammed in next to two (and a half) other passengers, the addict was disoriented when he awoke. And he was in a small space. And there was no easy way to get out. And airplane seats are not designed for 6' 1" addicts.



The addict woke up and had a panic or anxiety attack:

I'm trapped!
I can't move!
I need some space!
I need some air!
How am I going to make it all the way to Minneapolis!
We need to stop the flight!

H E L P !

After getting over the initial panic, the addict was able to re-orient himself and catch his breath. Within minutes everything was ok. But the panic attack left the addict shaken. He hadn't had an attack like that for some time. He thought he had recovered from such events.

This all leads to the bigger picture for addiction. What are all the contributors? It's not just making good and bad choices, establishing bottom lines, or "working the steps." For this addict (and for many) there are also issues of physical and mental health.

This addict suffers from depression and A.D.D. So the addict has to make sure he is continually treating these maladies as he faces the task of recovering from addiction.

Then there are the issues of regular health maintenance. Getting good sleep, exercising, eating healthy, keeping hydrated. The addict needs to do all of these things as part of the big picture of recovery. Perhaps this was the message from the panic attack. Keep vigilant, addict. Take care of yourself!

Whatever the message or the appropriate response, and no matter the shortness of the duration of the panic experience, the addict is still shaken from the anxiety attack which set upon him in the skies.

SHAKES ON A PLANE!!!



It is easy to make light of it now, but as any of you who have experienced an anxiety attack will know, there is nothing to laugh at when set upon by a panic attack.

Snow! Cold! Windchill!

In the land of the addict there has been a sudden climatological change. It was 75 and sunny on Saturday. Today, Wednesday, October 15th, it is 34 degrees and the first snow of the season is in the air. And with winds at 18 mph we also have our first windchill reading of the season: 23 degrees.

Of course neither 34 nor 23 are cold by Minnesota standards, but it takes time before that thick Minnesota skin kicks in.

In January a day like today will seem balmy.

Today it is cold!

Addicts and the Spiritual Experience

FROM THE "BIG BOOK":

Once this malady has a real hold, they are a baffled lot. There is the obsession that somehow, someday, they will beat the game. But they are down for the count.

The fact is that most [addicts], for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in [addiction]. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring in our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first [step into acting out].
The almost certain consequences that follow [acting out even once] do not crowd into the mind to deter us. If these thoughts occur, they are hazy and readily supplanted with the old threadbare idea that this time we shall handle ourselves like other people.



AND FURTHER DOWN IN THE "BIG BOOK":

We saw that it really worked in others, and we had come to believe in the hopelessness and futility of life as we had been living it. When, therefore, we were approached by those in whom the problem had been solved, there was nothing left for us but to pick up the simple kit of spiritual tools laid at our feet. We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed.

The great fact is just this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows, and toward God's universe.

---Big Book of AA, 24-25.