Amongst Waves and Wind

“I live before the Audience of One. Before others I have nothing to prove, nothing to gain, nothing to lose.” It is in this way that Os Guinness believes we as Christians should live our lives: before an Audience of One. That Audience (as the capital letters may have already revealed) is God.

I believe that any dedicated Christian that reads the above quotation would certainly want to achieve the state of faith and calling that it takes to renounce all but God in such a bold and committed fashion. However, whether we know it or not (or are just too ashamed to admit it) all of us unconsciously live our lives for many different audiences. God is often not one of them. If He is, He is mixed in with the crowd of other voices that fill our daily lives.

As college students, a myriad of opinions and audiences surround us on every side, perhaps even more than those in different walks of life. Academic pressure from our professors and our parents, pressure from our peers to be ‘cool’ and ‘fun’, spiritual pressure from our pastors and mentors, and, though less often emphasized, that quiet, constant pressure we put on ourselves to ‘measure up’ to whatever standard we’ve created for ourselves. All of these audiences and pressures, voices both loud and soft, meaningful and perhaps not so meaningful, are what God calls us to give up, so that we may instead pursue His Audience and His Audience alone.

This is by no means an easy task. I do not believe that we can simply fill our ears with beeswax and hum along merrily by ourselves, tuning out whatever others may have to say to us or about us and look at God alone. However, living for the Audience of One calls us to set up a filter between how we are pressured and how we live. Left to our own, no such filter exists. We act as Newtonion products of interrelational physics – two or three audiences pressure us to live one way or other, and in the end we will give in to the pressure which outweighs the others. We are “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching”, as Paul describes in his letter to the Ephesians, without a dominant or guiding voice that calls above the wind and waves and guides us back home. In the life of a Christian, this role of a guide, one that supersedes all others, is the role that God should occupy in our lives. However, while all Christians would like to claim that this is true in their own lives, very seldom do we live it out in a meaningful way.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,” This verse, found in the third chapter of Colossians, communicates the heart of what I think Os Guinness describes in his book. We live in the world of men, it is true, amongst millions of other human beings and their varying opinions, pressured this way and that by even those who are very near and dear to us. However, we do not live for any of them. We do not live for our professors, for our friends, for our parents or for anyone else on the face of planet Earth. We do, however, live for Almighty God who reigns on high, and as Christians, perhaps it’s about time we began to realize the call that Paul outlined for us in Colossians, the same call that Os Guinness describes so thoroughly in Rising to the Call.

So while I think it is incredibly important to listen to those wise and loving people that God places in our lives, we should do so with a filter set in place, in prayer and with the discernment God gives us as His children. We are called to live for Him, and not for men. In the waves and wind that is the world, some waves may end up steering us in the right direction, but in the end, it’s the Northern Star that helps us reach our final destination.

“I live before the Audience of One. Before others I have nothing to prove, nothing to gain, nothing to lose.”

I only pray I live my life in such a way that I can learn to say these words without fear and without shame, by the grace of God.

Final thoughts:

If we live for an Audience of One, is there any allowance for checks or accountability from other Christians to help us discerns what God is calling us to do in specific situations?

What if we do not know how to live for God alone in a specific circumstance?

NOTE: Sorry I turned this in so late! I wrote the entire thing and edited it, and then completely forgot to actually, oh, you know, post it on time. Sorry again!

To be Called by God

In his book, Rising to the Call, Os Guinness outlines what he believes to be a Christian’s view of calling and being called. Having read only a few pages of his book, I quickly became ill at ease with the direction in which he was steering his discussion, because it sounded dangerously subjective in a way I believe is untrue to the Biblical standard. However, he very quickly addressed my doubts and defined ‘Calling’ in a way that I find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with. There are two types of calling, according to Guinness; Primary, and Secondary. Primary Calling is the fundamental calling by God to an individual to follow and serve Him. Secondary Calling refers to the specific calling to an individual regarding their work and station in life. All Christians are called by the same Primary Calling, which is to serve and follow God, but not all Christians are called to the same occupation in their Secondary Calling, because all Christians are gifted in different ways.

Having defined ‘calling’ in this way, Guinness goes on to propose the idea that the greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service to Him. 

At first glance, this rather blunt statement appears contradictory. After all, if we are called to serve Jesus, how can our service to him hinder us in our relationship with him? However, I believe a more critical analysis of this idea in light of Guinness’ definition of ‘calling’ gives a better understanding of what he means. The primary and secondary callings are meant to be united to one another. Separation or exclusive emphasis placed on one or the other is unhealthy and unchristian. Thus, the devotion to Jesus (rooted in the primary calling) and the work involved in serving him (rooted in the secondary calling) cannot be separated in a healthy way. When our service to Jesus overshadows our devotion to him, we are starving ourselves of purpose. A personal, faith-filled relationship with Christ is our purpose, and our work is the way in which we live that out. However, we are easily distracted by short-term duties (service to Christ) and long term purposes (devotion to Christ). When our service is alienated from our purpose, it is demoted from work (that is ‘work’ in the Biblical definition) to drudgery and empty ritual. What was once our tool for honoring God becomes a hindrance to our devotion to him.

This can be exhibited in many different ways. ‘Going through the motions’ is a popular way to express the lifestyle that does all the ‘Christian’ things (go to church, read your Bible, etc.) but without a real faith and relationship with Christ. In our work and in our studies as college students, this can look like both obsession and negligence in relation to our workload, both of which forget the reason for which we are even working and studying in the first place. Although we may say we are studying (or working, attending church, etc) for Christ, if we let the ties between our primary calling and secondary callings fall apart, we cut ourselves off from our driving force. As a severed power line blacks out a city or syphoned fuel supply halts a car in its tracks, so the abandonment of our primary calling leaves us stranded in a baseless routine of work, study, and obligation that quickly disintegrates into a meaningless cycle. This, I think, is what Guinness meant when he said that our service to Christ could become our greatest hindrance to our devotion to God.

However, if we, as college students and as Christians, choose instead to proactively seek to unify the primary and secondary callings rather than separate them, I believe we will experience the inverse of what Guinness warns against in his book. Where separation brings hindrance, emptiness, and discontent, unity brings strength, fulfillment, and peace – not only for the individual, but, through the single primary call common to all Christians, to the Christian body as a whole.

Final thoughts:

Concerning secondary calling, are there any types of callings that are a waste of time, or superfluous?

Can people who have no faith in Christ, but have faith in something else (Buddhism, Islam, etc) live just as fulfilling lives as Christians?

 

Character Development

In his book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller proposes the idea that humans have a basic need for stories, and that stories shape our lives, define who we are, and change us on a basic level. Miller himself talks about several different stories that have shaped his life, including the absence of a father in his life.

My own life has been shaped by many different stories, and although I can’t possibly list them all here, I’ll mention a few. The first story is the fact that I am a triplet. Although we’re not identical and not too similar in personality, my sisters have undoubtedly had a profound effect on who I am today. Growing up with two sisters who are the exact same age as me has some interesting results. For instance, we have a habit of finishing each other’s sentences. Although it annoys some people, we can understand each other perfectly. Sometimes, I find myself pausing in conversation when I get lost and halfway expect one of my sisters to jump in and pick up where I left off, even if they’re not with me at the time. Conversely, growing up as a triplet has also made me a rather fast talker. The normal amount of sibling competition is tenfold in a triplet relationship, and as a young triplet bouncing around trying to tell dad about some amazing thing before my sisters could beat me to it, I learned to speak quickly. The habit has stuck around, and I still have people asking me to slow down and say things carefully.

Another important story in my life is my education – particularly my high school education. I was homeschooled from kindergarten on up through high school, which undoubtedly shaped how I think, learn, write, and view schoolwork. However, high school in particular shaped me in the ways that I think and learn. Worldview Classes, the school I attended in high school, emphasized the study of worldviews (rather predictable) and their impact on culture. Though the work was hard at times, these classes constantly challenged me to examine why I believed what I believed, and consider the possibility that I needed to rethink some of my beliefs. They taught me the importance of engaging culture as a Christian, and of knowing and understanding, rather than just absorbing whatever I am told. Also, these classes heavily affected how I think about college and what I would like to pursue as a career. I suppose I could shorten this whole past paragraph down into one sentence: the classes I took in high school changed my life, which just goes to prove Miller’s point that stories shape lives.

Miller also describes how people change throughout their lives. In fact, he asserts that people can’t help but to change. Mentally, emotionally, spiritually, people are constantly changing and morphing and growing into someone new. 

This becomes more evident in my own life every day. The huge shift from living at home to living at college is changing me in many ways. Since I arrived at JBU, I’ve become much more independent than I used to be. I’m juggling more activities and responsibilities than I normally would, and I’ve been stretched to engage more socially that I am used to. These things will inevitably change me. But how will they change me? I think this dilemma focuses in on the real challenge in Miller’s point: People change. You will change. But will it be for better, or worse? 

Much like the characters in a novel or a movie, all men and women will develop as characters throughout the course of their life. They will grow, learn, develop, and change. But what will they end up as? A hero? A villain? An innocent by-stander? These are the questions that Miller seems to be posing. Miller holds the position that you should aim for the change that you want the most, and overcome all conflict to achieve it. My question for Miller is this: Is achieving a change simply because you want it even possible?

Personally, I believe that the only way a person will truly ever change for the better is by the power of God. I can say confidently that all people change, for better or worse. Faced with this knowledge that I too will change on a regular basis, I must determine how I will change for the better. To do this, as a Christian, I look first to the author of the story that changes me: God. He is the author, and He knows exactly how I fit into the story and what I will learn and when I will grow. Surely, then, if He is with me as He promises he is, he will help me change for the better, into the character he wrote me to be. That is my hope and prayer as I continually change, that I will do so according to the will of God.

Final thoughts: 
Is it possible to change yourself for the better without God's help? If it is, what standard are you using to define 'better'?

Miller defines a story as "a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it". How, if at all, would the Christian's definition of 'story' differ from Miller's definition?

All the World's A Stage

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Although William Shakespeare 
was probably not the first man to ever liken our earthly lives to a staged performance, he certainly 
wasn’t the last. The idea that Shakespeare so eloquently described centuries ago continues to wrestle 
with our imaginations today: is there some bigger plot running through these everyday lives we live? 
If our lives were put into play form, or (perhaps more reasonably in the modern age) into a movie, what 
they be like? Would they make sense? Would they even be enjoyable to watch? Questions like these are
 easy to ponder, but a bit harder to answer. 

For Donald Miller, in his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, these tough-to-answer questions become much more real than Shakespeare’s poetic metaphor when two filmmakers, Ben and Steve, ask to make a movie about Don’s life. Suddenly, Don is thrown into an intense journey of introspection as he begins to put the story of his life onto paper in preparation for the silver screen. Faced with the apparent dullness of his real life and the need to create a more meaningful story for the movie version of himself, Don sets out on a quest to discover what makes a good story both on screen and in our daily lives.

Though I highly doubt I will ever be put in Don’s position, it is interesting to consider what a movie about my own life would look like. For the sake of imagination and this assignment, I’ve been asked to write out a ‘scene’ of my life that I view as important or remember vividly. Although I’m sure at least a dozen of my classmates have done the same, I’ve selected the day that I first came to know Jesus as my personal savior. I was seven years old at the time, at Vacation Bible school.

What the man up on stage was saying made sense. I’d heard it all before, what I’d grown up around knowing was the ‘gospel story’, but for some reason, I’d never fully understood it until that moment, when something finally clicked in my mind. I’d always heard that humans, myself included, were sinful and needed a savior, but I’d never really known it until then, and that’s when it all fell into place. There were dozens of other kids going up to the stage during the alter call, (it was a large VBS and a large church) and the VBS leaders were encouraging anyone who wished to be saved to go towards the front, but I was a bit of a shy kid, and I thought that God wouldn’t much mind where I was when I prayed, so I stayed in my chair and prayed silently to receive Jesus and His grace into my heart. I don’t remember a miraculous change or a sudden zest for life after that prayer, but I do remember a peace that I don’t remember ever feeling before that point. I didn’t tell anyone afterwards, until my family and I were riding back home at the end of VBS, and, as I watched the trees and asphalt whiz by, I casually mentioned my newfound salvation to my mother. I’ll never forget that moment (even if she doesn’t remember it) when she turned around to me, slightly taken off guard, and smiled.

The memory of my ‘salvation prayer’ itself is rather hazy – I remember it happening, but the details are a bit fuzzy. However, my memory of that ride home, from the color of the leaves outside to the newfound peace in my heart, to that wonderfully unforgettable look on my mom’s face, are all vividly clear. Why, I don’t know quite know, but I do know that if ever there were to be a movie of my life story, that moment would have to find its way in there somewhere. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, that was one of the most important (if not the most important) moments of my life. Perhaps that’s what’s made it stick with me all these years.

Truthfully, there probably won’t ever be a movie depicting my life story (and for the sake of audiences everywhere, I hope there never will be) but the point that Don Miller makes in his book is a thought provoking one: we are all living a story. The question is, when the credits begin to roll, can we honestly say it was a good story? I look forward to reading the rest of Miller’s book and seeing how he answers his own question.

Personally, I subscribe to a view that is, in some ways, a more literal interpretation of Mr. Shakespeare’s words. All the world’s a stage, all the men and women merely players. But our stage lies not in front of men, but before Almighty God, and just as the players on Shakespeare’s stage must project the lines that the playwright feeds them in order to tell the best tale, we also must live our lives in accordance with God’s will in order to live the life – that is, the story – that remains meaningful even as we give our final bows and the credits roll by. So while Don Miller continues searching for a better story in daily life and conferences, I will look instead to the best story ever told, the story of God’s Word, and strive to live my life according to that of my Lord and Savior – and, as it were, playwright – Jesus Christ.

Some final thoughts:

It’s easy enough to say that the story of our lives should revolve around Christ, but when it gets down to it, how can we tell what God desires for our unique life story – education, location of residence, friends, spouse, profession, etc.?

Does everything that happens in the world’s story truly have a purpose, or does the problem of evil, as a result of the Fall, create some events that have no meaning?

College, Work, and the Biblical Model

Danielle Sallade speaks extensively on the lives of college students in her essay, Human Flourishing, particularly on how students view the importance of control over their lives: control of work, control of career, and control of future. Despite our society’s addiction to utter control, looking at the problem from a Christian worldview, I do not think that control is necessarily a good thing. I believe that when God commands us to trust in Him alone, he is asking us to entrust him with not only our spiritual lives, but our professional, personal, and academic lives as well, and this means relinquishing most of that oh-so-important control to Him. In addition to the issue of control, there are many other points where the philosophy typical of college students and that of the Bible disagree. Where the Bible tells us that we should sleep well and rest from our work occasionally, students believe that sleep is overrated. Where the Bible tells us that our value is found in Christ alone, students believe that their value is calculated by the numbers on their tests and the career paths they choose. Where the Bible teaches that success is based on a life lived for God, students believe that success is based on how much money they can make. Clearly, the two philosophies are in direct contention with one another. Faced with this dilemma, a choice between an unbiblical but popular philosophy and a philosophy which is biblical but is undoubtedly harder to live, I would suggest that it is immeasurably better and healthier to live by the Biblical standard of work and study. Although we may not get as much ‘done’ by the typical college standard, we will accomplish infinitely more in God’s eyes if we focus our attention on Him and not our ever-busy schedule. Or work will become meaningful, our education enjoyable, and we can look to our future confident in the knowledge that God oversees it all.