How Should We Then Live?

It's been a while since I've posted anything. Wrapping up my writing class with the kids, studying for finals, taking finals, recovering from finals, and the general hustle and bustle of the holiday season have consumed most of my time recently. And an amazing three-day backpacking trip.

Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail Overlook

It's been so different adjusting to break...no more 5 am mornings (except for the day or two that I have to work at the hospital in the next couple weeks), no more exhausting clinical days, no more trying not to be frustrated when my transfer bus downtown is 25 minutes late...again, and no more class projects, papers, presentations, or memorizing the stages of labor and signs of respiratory distress in a newborn. And as wonderful as it is to have a break from that part of my life, it's also difficult to adapt to a new schedule, one that's historically been a challenge for me. You see, I have this problem. I really like to stay busy. And when I'm not busy, I get antsy, anxious, and generally stressed. I don't like not having things to do and accomplish. It's been healthy for me to learn to rest in the quiet times and allow myself to recharge (whether I feel like I need to recharge or not) before the next wave of responsibility comes along. And I'm getting better, I really am, but it's still a "trouble area" nevertheless.

Some recent events, catastrophic life-changing mind-blowing devastating redeeming painful releasing merciful overwhelming events to be more specific (another story for another time), have caused me to seriously reevaluate my life. I've been asking myself a lot of questions about my person, my faith, my beliefs. As a family, we've been going through a series of teachings on the Westminster Shorter Catechism, starting with the very first question: What is the chief end of man? In other words, what is the purpose of man? What was the reason for his creation? What is the motivation that drives him forward?

The answer? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Wow. Think about that for a minute. The reason that we are alive on this earth, the reason why we are in the exact place where we are, the reason why we wake up each moment and get out of bed is to GLORIFY God and ENJOY Him forever.

That one sentence carries enough weight to write a 10-volume book, but I'm in no position to undertake that. What I do know is that coming to the realization and conviction that your life's purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him from the moment He gave you life through all eternity will shake your worldview, redefine how you choose to live, and bring about a humility in your spirit as you see the grace of God for what it is.

I used to look at people's lives and watch them live each day with an aimlessness and apathy, a lack of forward vision, and I thought that was the saddest thing I had ever seen. I've decided that that's not true. The most tragic thing that I've ever seen is a highly motivated, extremely talented person live life with incredible purpose. The wrong purpose. A purpose that has no ultimate value, and will mock him when his time comes to give an account before His creator.

I thought I knew my purpose, my life plan, who God was, and what He wanted from me. I was the individual living with a flawed purpose, and it nearly ruined me. But God. What incredible powerful wonderful words. But God. But God in His mercy saw fit to open my prideful eyes. But God in His grace wanted to call me to a higher ground. But God loved me enough to tear from me everything I held dear, those things that had become such a part of my personhood that I didn't even see how ungodly they were until He gave me a spiritual pool so I could see my reflection. Much like Eustace in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, I then saw that I needed a surgery that no human hands could perform. A surgery that required me to allow God into EVERY area of my life. To touch areas that I didn't want to be touched, to cut areas that I didn't want cut. And afterwards, I was the same, and yet different. Changed. One step closer to conforming the image of Christ. I believe it's called conversion.

"Then the lion said -- but I don't know if it spoke -- 'You will have to let me undress you.' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know -- if you've ever picked the scab off a sore place. It hurts like billy -- oh but it is such fun to see it coming away."
"I know exactly what you mean," said Edmund.
"Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off -- just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt -- and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me -- I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on -- and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again" [115-116].


How should we then live, brothers and sisters? As pure vessels for the glory of God, enjoying Him and Him alone as the lover of our souls, the master of our hearts, the healer of our wounds, the standard by which all men will be judged.