Keeping Our Aspirations In Christian Perspective
KEEPING OUR ASPIRATIONS IN CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE
Imagine that you could live your life backwards in time. From the moment that you take your last breath, all the way back to the moment you were born into this world. Conceptually, this is a difficult thing to imagine. Living, by definition implies a forward continuity, and so it is hard to imagine living life as we know it virtually in the opposite direction. But if you could do this, you would know the outcome of events currently taking place, the consequences of actions, the end results of paths taken and those not taken.
All that you have read so far is summarily a fancy way of saying: Imagine that you could see the future. But alas, we are human and seeing the future is as impossible and unfathomable as living life backwards in time, right? Not necessarily, for there is God. God is omniscient, and only he can see the length and breadth of our lives.
As young people we are vibrant and filled with ambition. I have been fortunate enough to come across many wonderful, forward thinking young people. Those who dream of being doctors, lawyers, successful business people, but the beauty of these human minds is that their dreams and ambitions are not limited to one goal. These same people also want to be great family members, good Christians. The truth is that we as humans have as many hopes, dreams, desires of varying degrees, as are people on this earth. But there is always the stickling fact that we do not live our lives backwards in time, and thus do not know the consequences of each dream, the side-effect of every ambition. God knows this. And so when we face a hardship, a disappointment, we tend to look at our lives from the point of view of one all too familiar with the need and desirer, but a stranger to the outcome. This is where we must trust in God.
The bible teaches us that “All things work out for good for those who love and trust the lord”. (Romans 8:28). As hard as it is to do, at these times we must surrender everything to him. Who better to be in charge of our affairs than one who not only knows all things, but can also do all things? Though we have doubts, though God’s will for us may be a mystery to us at the time, we must go a step beyond putting things in perspective; we must put them in a Christian perspective.
Though I have seen so many things over the course of my life, I have neither encountered the misfortune that some have seen, nor have I encountered the good fortune that others seem to enjoy. But the greatest gift, the only one that matters is our salvation through Christ our lord. This is the great human equalizer. At the feet of God’s throne, we all, rich and poor, intelligent or slow of wit, are the same.
When we look at our lives in its entirety, when we think of the reason that Christ died on the cross, we begin to understand that if when all is said and done we have lived according to Gods will for us, our human hopes and dreams begin to lose their fervor and appeal. At this time, what does it matter what positions we hold, human dreams we accomplish, or things we own, in the face of an eternity with God? And we should all come to understand that we could have never attended a day of school, nor entered into a car, nor ever learned to write, but still live a life as fulfilled as any life ever lived.
As Mothers always seem to do, my Mother imparted to me two verses that I had previously never come across. The last two verses in the book of Ecclesiastes (12:13-14). God granted King Solomon wisdom beyond measure and after spending the book of Ecclesiastes talking about his personal experiences, and giving us various pieces of advice he concludes by telling us the entire duty of man, what we were created for. None of us holds any claim to perfection, but this ultimately should be our life’s pursuit.
Our dreams and hopes are beautiful things, which can only be made more cherished by the fact that God grants them to us not because we need them to fulfill our destiny, but out of his grace and mercy. So let us dream our dreams, and hope our hopes, but always keep them in a Christian perspective.
Choose thou for me my friends
My sickness or my health;
Choose thou my cares for me,
My poverty or wealth.
Not mine, not mine, the choice
In things both great and small
Be thou my guide, my strength,
My wisdom and my all
Ancient & Modern: Hymn 356. Verse 6 & 7.
Imagine that you could live your life backwards in time. From the moment that you take your last breath, all the way back to the moment you were born into this world. Conceptually, this is a difficult thing to imagine. Living, by definition implies a forward continuity, and so it is hard to imagine living life as we know it virtually in the opposite direction. But if you could do this, you would know the outcome of events currently taking place, the consequences of actions, the end results of paths taken and those not taken.
All that you have read so far is summarily a fancy way of saying: Imagine that you could see the future. But alas, we are human and seeing the future is as impossible and unfathomable as living life backwards in time, right? Not necessarily, for there is God. God is omniscient, and only he can see the length and breadth of our lives.
As young people we are vibrant and filled with ambition. I have been fortunate enough to come across many wonderful, forward thinking young people. Those who dream of being doctors, lawyers, successful business people, but the beauty of these human minds is that their dreams and ambitions are not limited to one goal. These same people also want to be great family members, good Christians. The truth is that we as humans have as many hopes, dreams, desires of varying degrees, as are people on this earth. But there is always the stickling fact that we do not live our lives backwards in time, and thus do not know the consequences of each dream, the side-effect of every ambition. God knows this. And so when we face a hardship, a disappointment, we tend to look at our lives from the point of view of one all too familiar with the need and desirer, but a stranger to the outcome. This is where we must trust in God.
The bible teaches us that “All things work out for good for those who love and trust the lord”. (Romans 8:28). As hard as it is to do, at these times we must surrender everything to him. Who better to be in charge of our affairs than one who not only knows all things, but can also do all things? Though we have doubts, though God’s will for us may be a mystery to us at the time, we must go a step beyond putting things in perspective; we must put them in a Christian perspective.
Though I have seen so many things over the course of my life, I have neither encountered the misfortune that some have seen, nor have I encountered the good fortune that others seem to enjoy. But the greatest gift, the only one that matters is our salvation through Christ our lord. This is the great human equalizer. At the feet of God’s throne, we all, rich and poor, intelligent or slow of wit, are the same.
When we look at our lives in its entirety, when we think of the reason that Christ died on the cross, we begin to understand that if when all is said and done we have lived according to Gods will for us, our human hopes and dreams begin to lose their fervor and appeal. At this time, what does it matter what positions we hold, human dreams we accomplish, or things we own, in the face of an eternity with God? And we should all come to understand that we could have never attended a day of school, nor entered into a car, nor ever learned to write, but still live a life as fulfilled as any life ever lived.
As Mothers always seem to do, my Mother imparted to me two verses that I had previously never come across. The last two verses in the book of Ecclesiastes (12:13-14). God granted King Solomon wisdom beyond measure and after spending the book of Ecclesiastes talking about his personal experiences, and giving us various pieces of advice he concludes by telling us the entire duty of man, what we were created for. None of us holds any claim to perfection, but this ultimately should be our life’s pursuit.
Our dreams and hopes are beautiful things, which can only be made more cherished by the fact that God grants them to us not because we need them to fulfill our destiny, but out of his grace and mercy. So let us dream our dreams, and hope our hopes, but always keep them in a Christian perspective.
Choose thou for me my friends
My sickness or my health;
Choose thou my cares for me,
My poverty or wealth.
Not mine, not mine, the choice
In things both great and small
Be thou my guide, my strength,
My wisdom and my all
Ancient & Modern: Hymn 356. Verse 6 & 7.
posted by unconditionaluv at 7:18 PM
2 Comments:
Wow that is so true. At the end of the day, everything we have is by His grace and once we realize that, we get a clearer picture of just how powerful He is and just how great He is!
Thanks for your post. I recently completed a series on my blog on ambition. I blogged on it because I found it to be a challenge for many Christians to navigate through this topic.
I would love to get your thoughts. Here's the link to my latest post from which you can get to earlier posts in the series.
http://everysquareinch.blogspot.com/2006/11/stewarding-ambition-with-faithfulness.html
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