welcome to the story.

Last week we discussed the metaphor of fatherhood and how that related to our discussion of God�s will. I contended that this image of God as father and us as his children is so much more freeing and loving than the image and metaphor of God as a puppet master or chess player with us as pawns in his game. We also reframed our conversation by asking, �What is God�s passion for me versus what is God�s will for me?� Again, the language used, although it may seem small and virtually the same, shapes our idea of what the process is supposed to look like of discovering God�s will. The language of �God�s passion� is loving, caring, nurturing, and patient while the language of �God�s will� can come across as forceful, controlling, detached, and legalistic if we are not careful. As we reframed our conversation in terms of passion and fatherhood last week, I�d like to add one more image/metaphor to our framework this week. And that is the image and metaphor of kingdom. The term kingdom is somewhat foreign to us because we don�t really have a reference point in our culture to illustrate the word. We don�t use the language of kingdom and kings anymore. Unless of course you get a copy of Us magazine every week just so you can drool over pictures of Prince William wearing a $1500 sweater (and an entire outfit worth more than most of our cars � not to mention his million dollar horse) while mounted on a horse and hitting a ball with a mallet as he plays rugby. Hardly sounds like somebody worth drooling over, unless of course you go for the rich, handsome, princely types. The terms king and kingdom come from a different place and a different time that we can�t fully understand today. Even our best attempts at an analogy fall short because our modern day nations with their presidents and prime ministers are so different than the kings and kingdoms of old. But way back when . . . when there were peasants and merchants and clergy and royalty, there existed a rule of order, a rule of life. And whatever position you held, whether noble or common, glamorous or mundane, you were born into something that was much larger than just you . . . a part of something much bigger than your life alone. When you entered into this world of kings and kingdoms, you entered into a life that was, for the most part, predetermined. In this world, your life had a calling, a responsibility, a destiny. And whether you were nobility or a peasant, your life carried it with it . . . an intentionality . . . an honor . . . to serve the King. It�s true that the nobility often were overbearing on the peasants. And the merchants often clashed with the clergy. And every class of people were unhappy or got frustrated with their life circumstances at some point in time. It wouldn�t be hard to imagine a common peasant slashing the wagon wheels on the merchant�s cart. Or the merchants using eggs from their stand to take out a young noble�s mailbox. And then all parties going to the clergy for confession. There is no doubt that they were jealous of higher classes of people and even resented their own positions at times. But they still served the King and they did this with honor. And this is such a foreign idea to us in our age of individualism, but they did this willingly and humbly because they realized their lives aim . . . their lives purpose was to serve the King and the bigger picture of the Kingdom. In this medieval world, whatever it was that you �did� or whatever �job� that you had, you did it for the King. If you played the flute well, you were to play the flute in the presence of the King, for the King, to bring glory to the King. If you were a peasant farmer, you were to grow crops to provide food for the King and the Kingdom. If you were a blacksmith, you were to shape iron for weapons for the King. If you were an artist, you were to create masterpieces for the King so that his name and Kingdom could be made great and famous. If you were nobility, you were to sit on your butt all day long and pontificate about politics and culture and have no idea what you were talking about but really enjoyed hearing yourself talk anyway, even if no one was listening. But you thought you were important so you kept talking anyway. I�m sorry I think I just described half of Hollywood and most politicians. They had their role in the service of the King too I guess (the King works in mysterious ways sometimes). I say all of that to help us realize that everyone had a job. Everyone had a responsibility. Everyone had a calling. Everyone had a destiny. And it didn�t matter what it was. This is so drastically different than how we view our lives today. We view our lives much more individualistically. Our jobs, our desires, our heart, our story, our lives, serve nothing outside of ourselves. At best, we make an attempt at serving our immediate family and friends, or our spouses and our kids. But even at that, our lives still fall short of serving something larger and bigger than our finite selves. We don�t live our lives as though we were created for something divine, something bigger. Instead, we get by. We drift, we aimlessly float, waiting for our life to happen all while we chase the American dream that fulfills our individualistic quest for our success (money), our fame (reputation), our glory (kingdom). But what if we were created for a Kingdom and this Kingdom does indeed have a King. And what if our lives, whether noble or common, exciting or mundane, were created with something larger in mind, namely the glory and fame of the King and Kingdom? If this is all true, and I believe it is, we must then ask ourselves what were we made to be? What were we made to do? What were we made for? This is where we get practical as we attempt to discover God�s passion for our lives. The first couple of weeks we�ve been attacking and deconstructing exactly what we shouldn�t do as we seek to understand God�s will. This week we ask ourselves the first question: What were we made for? This is the first question you have to ask yourselves when attempting to discover or become aware of (if you�re really bored, consider just how powerful those two words are in this context and how loaded and deep they are) God�s passion for you on a particular issue. This question is especially important when we start asking those big questions such as: Where do I go to school? Who should I marry? What do I want to be when I grow up? Etc. Let�s just take the last question and tease it out a little bit. What do I want to be when I grow up? Or more maturely put, what am I going to do for a job for the rest of my life? That�s a question that for most of us, we�ve wrestled with or are wrestling with. And for some of us, we�ve attempted to bring God in on the process to lead us and direct us. So stop for a minute and if you�re in the process of thinking through this life shaping decision or have at least thought about it for more than 10 seconds in the past year, ask yourself our question: What were you made for? This is where it gets practical. Because I�ll be honest, 10 years ago at the wise old age of 14, I could have sworn I was born and made to be a rock star. I mean it was in my bones. Sure I couldn�t play an instrument and couldn�t carry a tune to save my life, but I had a Milli Vanilli tape and a desire to grow dread locks. What more did I need? At 14, I could have sworn that was what I was made for. Needless to say, I picked bad role models and Milli Vanilli turned out not to be much more of a rock star than I was. But here�s the problem. If I couldn�t sing or play an instrument or had no stage presence, it wouldn�t make much sense for me to be a rock star. No matter how much I wanted to be one or felt like that is what I wanted to be. At 14, it was ok for me to carry out such delusional ideas. But if I was 24 and still had this idea that I was going to be a rock star despite my lack of ability or skills (as Napoleon would say), then something would be obviously wrong. So the first practical thing you can do when seeking God�s will or his passion for your life, is to ask your friends and family, the people who know you the best. And ask them. Tell them about your decision or your search for understanding God�s will in a particular situation. Ask them. If you want to be a rock star, ask them what they think. Real friends and real family who care about you will be honest with you. Ask them what their advice would be in this situation. Be selective about who you ask though. Don�t ask people who are just going to tell you what you want to hear. Don�t ask people who don�t have any wisdom or perspective. Seek out godly men and women, godly friends and family and ask them. Ask them to join with you in your praying and seeking. Better yet, try to find someone who is where you want to be in 10 years, spiritually, professionally, etc. Ask them. Ask someone who you know will give you honest and godly council and bring them in on the process of discovering God�s heart for your decision or choice. These people will be able to walk beside you and encourage you and pray with you. I know it sounds simple. I know it sounds easy. But that�s because it is. But oftentimes we are too proud to ask or just simply forget about the wisdom and perspective that surrounds us. So let�s use it. If I�m at a crossroads and I don�t have clear direction either way, even after I�ve prayed and read Scripture and sought after God�s heart, bring in other people who can come alongside you and join with you. Ask yourself, what was I made for? What was I made to do? That�s the first question. And you�ll be surprised because it will eliminate a whole of options. It�s hard to believe that I would have been created to be a doctor when the first sight of blood causes me to sweat profusely and sway from side to side in a dizzying way as my face turns white. It�s hard to believe that the King would want me operating on people if a paper cut is about as much as I could handle. But its not as hard to believe that the King wants me to serve him by making people laugh and using creativity and communicating and sharing His story with others. That�s much more in line with my gifts and what I enjoy and what I was made for. Although I still have a somewhat strong desire to be a rock star. Although we live in a different time and a different place than the medieval world, our lives should still reflect honor in what we do for the King. So whether it�s a doctor, playing the jazz flute, a veterinarian, an actor, a chef, a politician, a trash man, do it for the glory and fame of the King and his Kingdom.