Breakthrough

Is there someone that has radically influenced your life for the better? I don't mean Aunt Nellie whose pies you can't wait for at Thanksgiving. I mean someone that really upset the way you think and turned you in a new direction. Maybe you were a drunk and this person walked up and had the nerve to tell you just that and it stuck. You got up, threw your alcohol away, washed off the stench of addiction and are walking the straight and narrow path to this day.

I hope someone has impacted you for the better a long the way. John Piper being an academic individual was struggling with the philosophical issues of the human race and how we deal with God. It bothered him to the depth of his being that people were rationalizing God away. People had/have decided that they "don't find meaning, they create it." There isn't real truth there is only what I believe and you believe. No one is right. No one is wrong. Ugh! How do you hold on to the hope that is Jesus Christ when nothing matters but what you or I can see. 

Thankfully, there were several men in Piper's life that were able to point him in the direction of real meaning; E. D. Hirsch, Daniel Fuller and Jonathon Edwards. Piper's was trying to figure out how not to get to the end of his life and look back thinking that he had completed wasted it. Luckily, these men gave Piper a firm foundation which kind of turned on a new light in his mind to see things more brightly and accurately. 

It isn't necessary for you to understand the philosophical issues that Piper was struggling with honestly. If that is bothering you, move on for now. What is most important is his conclusion with the help of Jonathon Edwards. "Delighting in God was not a mere preference or option in life; it is our joyful duty and should be the single passion of our lives." That is a big thought which you could really chew on for the rest of your life.

Delighting in God, I can handle an hour a week at church but the single passion of my life? As I write, I can't help but go through the day and think about how often I was not delighting in God. It's pretty humbling. I know there were instances where I was aware of God's work in my life but how often did I really relish in the fact that I have been adopted into a royal family. I am a child of God. 

How much stress and trauma would we avoid if we spent more time relishing in the goodness of God? Instead of running around grumbling and complaining, what would happen if we walked around full of the knowledge that God has the worst of our circumstances under his control and worked out for our eternal good? What if we stopped worrying about who likes us and relished in the fact that we have been accepted just as we are into the family of God himself. 

I challenge you to take this week and start retraining your brain. Find a bible verse, aspect of God or worship song that resonates with you and whenever you start to feel less than joyful think on it. Take another moment and pray for that situation/person and ask God to help you see His purpose in it. If you keep up this quick and simple practice, you will see a remarkable difference in how you see and interact with the world around you which will help you along the path to a non-wasted life.