I had ample time over the weekend to relax. Our house is dealing with a slight issue right now that requires my daughter and me to stay home, away from people, smell like tea tree oil and use tiny little combs if you catch my drift… (which is a blog post for another day).
My husband was working on Saturday on the other side of the island and Sunday he was gone to Nevis most of the day to preach at a church. So I spent the weekend playing with my daughter and watching the 2012 Ligonier Conference Sessions online. The conference theme was “The Christian Mind” and all of the sessions have been amazing (I only have two more to watch).
Session 10, When Worlds Collide by Dr. Del Tackett, really got to me. Dr. Tackett’s message was about the importance of having a Christian worldview and what the opposite seems to be in our postmodern Western culture. Many people, Christians included, live like the world is about themselves.
He recounted an instance at a restaurant when he sat next to a young family with a baby wearing a shirt that said “It’s all about me”. I’ve seen those shirts myself and I know they are adorable because for a while, life does seem to be all about our babies. However, we really are raising our children with a worldview that life is all about what they want, their happiness, their desires and their dreams.
That is not a Christian worldview. The Bible plainly teaches that life isn’t about us, it’s about God and His glory.
Dr. Tackett compared a selfish worldview to the idea of writing your own script instead of enjoying the one given to you by the Lord. The lie that we can write the script of our lives into something better, more fulfilling, something that will bring us more happiness, more success and more satisfaction is as old as Eden itself.
Satan deceived Adam and Eve into believing they could write their own script, that God’s plan for them wasn’t as good as it would be if they were in control. Believing God was holding out on them, they took control… they wrote their own script and ate the fruit. Instead of a fulfilling life of happiness and satisfaction, they received death and had to be separated from God.
So what happens to us when we make life about ourselves… when we “write our own script apart from God?” Relationships suffer because no one is willing to sacrifice, children grow up not understanding why they should know Christ and the Church becomes ineffective at pretty much everything.
The unfortunate part in all of this is that you and I are guilty. We all want to make life about ourselves… that is the bedrock of sin. Even as a Christian who loves Jesus and is serving Him on the mission field, my natural inclination is to only care about my script… not my husband’s, not my daughter’s and certainly not the Lord’s.
When things don’t go according to your plans and it makes you angry, bitter, depressed or more upset than you should be, then you are likely trying to write your own script. I’ve seen people walk away from the faith because of a bad break-up, or because they didn’t get married when they thought they should, or because they didn’t have the job they wanted or because life didn’t turn out the way they planned.
But I’ve also seen a family continue to trust in the Lord and His plan when their child was diagnosed with a debilitating brain tumor. I’ve seen a wife thrive in the Lord when her husband almost dies in a car wreck. I’ve seen a mother remain thankful and joyful when her teenage daughter suddenly died in a car crash. Of course it’s normal to be devastated when tragedies like these happen. There is real pain, real grieving and real agony. Nobody writes these things into their script, yet when what we want clashes with what God is doing, do we still believe God is good and is in control?
I didn’t write infertility into my script… I was supposed to have a baby last year. I don’t want the heartache I experience to cloud my worldview. I don’t want my desire to have another child yesterday make me believe that God isn’t a good God who loves me and is in control of my life. No matter what, I want to be joyful in the Lord… to stand strong with a faith that continues to grow bigger and a trust that only deepens.
I want to be able to say, “I’d rather have the hardships God has chosen for me than the life I wanted without Him”.
I want to want nothing but God’s script for my life.
So who is your life really about?
Too much of the time I fear my life is about me.
When you get time make sure you watch Dr. Tackett’s session… it’s well worth it.
