Alright, are you ready for this? This is gonna be speed blogging. I helped Lisa fix her laptop for about three hours, and I’m supposed to be up to help Andrew move at 8am, and it’s 1:30 in the morning. I make no guarantees as to the quality of this post. Please proceed with caution.
One sentence summary: Most of us base our lives on faulty life metaphors, but in God’s view, life is a test and a trust.
First: life as a test. Looking at hardships in life as tests from God seems to me to be a very healthy viewpoint. Even now, just thinking on things that have happened to me in the past year, it makes everything much clearer. And I think a piece that Mr. Warren misses here is that God isn’t just testing us. He is also teaching us. God doesn’t want us to fail, but if we do, there is a lesson in it. And the next time that we are faced with a similar test, we will be better prepared. We will be better members of Christ’s body. This is how God is continually purifying us.
Second: life as a trust. I actually used this metaphor a few posts back, when I alluded to the parable of the talents. Rick Warren focuses a lot on how God entrusts us with physical things we own: money, houses, “stuff.” And yes, we are God’s stewards of the earth and everything in it, but I think that is actually the lesser part. More importantly, we are stewards of an immense power–the greatest power ever bestowed on any created being: free will. And the spirits that drive it. Each of us is a uniquely created being with particular character traits, talents, gifts, and a will that ties them all together. And what we do with that is the ultimate test. We are entrusted to bring forth fruit from this gift that God has given us–to make His name known throughout the earth. But maybe I have blurred the lines to much between trust and test by bringing will into it. I don’t know, I’m not a theologian.
I had a vision while reading the end of this chapter, where Mr. Warren is talking about giving an account at the end of days to the Lord. I saw myself sitting on Father’s lap as we watch my whole life on a little TV set. And every time it came to a part where I did something good, He would pat my back lovingly and say “Well done.” And any time my TV-self would screw up, I would hide my head in shame, and He would get a pained look on his face as the moment passed.
It struck me pretty heavily.
God, I love you. Help me not to cause you any more pain. Give me the strength to pass the test.
Amen.