The Reality Check: What is my Drive in Life?
The check-up: We started the evening’s study with some questions for reflection:
A) When I wake up in the mornings, what are my usual thoughts? What am I
usually feeling?
usually feeling?
As I plan my day, what am I focusing on?
B) As I go through my day—work, school, home, wherever—what do I think is most important? What is most important to me in what I am doing (what are my goals)?
What is most important to me when I am interacting with the people around
me?—what are my major goals when I interact with the people in my life?
me?—what are my major goals when I interact with the people in my life?
C) At the end of my day, what makes me feel I’ve had a “good day”?
Look at your answers (I encourage you to write them down!—these are good for periodic “check-ups” on our spiritual well-being). What do you see??
Is my Drive in Life for Pleasure, Power/Prestige (can include Security), or Meaning/ Communion with Christ?
What do stories from Scripture have to tell us about these things? What makes our life a life worth living? And what does life really come down to, in the end?
(first, are Bible stories useful? check out Romans 15:4 and II Timothy 3:15-17)
King Solomon in Proverbs 20:1; 21:17 and Ecclesiastes 1-2:23; 7:1-14; 12:11-14:
· A life of running after pleasure or power/prestige is empty
(Viktor Frankl, Jewish psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, on this topic: …happiness cannot be pursued [cannot be your goal]…one must have a reason to “be happy.” Pleasure is…a side-effect or by-product, and is destroyed and spoiled to the degree to which it is made a goal in itself. (from Man’s Search for Meaning)
· The emptiness of running after things other than God can lead us to “hate life” or to live in a state of boredom
Checking in with myself: Can I be alone with myself and be comfortable—no music, TV, video games, Facebook, other people, food, drugs, etc.?
Am I always looking for the next rush, the latest excitement?
[If I have trouble in these areas, it is telling me that something is wrong or missing in my spiritual life—I need to pay attention to this!!]
· The BIG question in life is NOT “How can I be happy?” or “What’s in it for me?” The BIG question is asked of us by God: What did you do with the life I gave you? (see also II Peter 1:3-11; Matt. 12:36; Hebrews 4:12-16)
What should we be running after in this life?
King David’s conclusions after a full life, in Psalm 16; Psalm 119: 30-37; 84:10-11
Jesus’ answer to a weary, hurting woman in John 4:10-14
God’s answer to His covenant people (whose “tree” we have been grafted into, Rom. 11) in Isaiah 55
· God wants to offer us a life of true, full satisfaction, joy and pleasure!
· Jesus is the Source of all lasting pleasure and fulfillment
· Remember, if this is a stretch for you, ASK the Holy Spirit to open your eyes (Psalm 34:8 is God’s invitation!)
C.S. Lewis, Christian literature professor and philosopher/apologist, on some of these things:
“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” (from The Weight of Glory) [emphases added]
Let us pray—for conviction of our sin, for our eyes to be opened to Truth, for God to change our hearts, our desires, our goals!
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