3.3.06
life has been different after getting back my results. i just do not know why. suddenly my heart feels heavy, and there're like a lot of things on my mind, where to go, what to do, will i get accepted etc.
results haven't been too pleasing. it has been rather disappointing. ok, its more than rather disappointing. and i guess at this point in time i still have not really accepted the results that i've gotten. some pple say that i'm taking this pretty well, and i'm trying to stay positive.but am i deceiving myself, saying that there's still a perfectly good chance that i'll get into uni or into the course that i want to apply for? well, maybe its
faith, faith that He'll lead me and show me the way, faith that this is part of the refining process, and that it wouldn't be a smooth and easy going one. last nite i couldn't slp and was just lying on my bed thinking...
-take me higher. draw me closer-an email tt i got from ade fameCOMMENTARY: Googling for God's Will."Why doesn't God just gave me a straightforward answer whenI ask Him for His will?"Invariably someone will ask this when I run a seminar on "Finding God's Will."The logic of this question is even clearer in an Google age.After all when I need to know something I just Google andthere are the answers.Why on earth doesn't God set up a similar search engine? Or maybe a 1-800 number. 1-800-Godspeaks?
There are many ways I can answer this question.
Often I remind folks that God only answers when we are readyto obey. He doesn't entertain approaches that go "you tell me the answer first God and then I decide if I will obey."If we are to hear from God we are to approach Him in thefear of the Lord, which essentially means with a will insubmission to Him.
Or I remind them that probably their life is so noisy that God's still small voice just gets drowned out. Andimpatience is so loud. In the words of Emilie Griffin:"We are so busy with our complaints and our requests that wehardly stop to listen for the voice of God...how can the voice be heard, unless we listen? Sometimes God can hardlyget a word in edgewise."
In truth I do not know for sure why God doesn't simplyanswer every time I have a query for Him. But my strong suspicion is that it has something to do with this: That God's primary concern is that we grow in maturity. And that is something that is unlikely to happen if He gives us some technique to get Him to speak.
When I was in primary school (grades 1-6) I had a friend who told me that he and his brothers used to go to the cemeteryat night to ask the spirits for "numbers", i.e. the winning numbers of upcoming lotteries. I forget the steps involved. It had something to do with impaling a grave with a bamboo stick at midnight, saying the right spells and offering theright food offerings, some form of DIY shamanism.
The focus of such exercises was not the spirit, nor even those asking. The focus of the exercise was the information required. I feel the modern approach to questions hasn't moved too far beyond such a culture. We all want information on all sorts of issues. Of course that includes the critical ones like marriage partners and job choices.
But how many of us are interested in knowing what God is truly like? How many of us want to go deeper in our relationship with Him? And how many of us have "growing in Christlikeness" as life priority one?
The temptation is that we are not really that interested in knowing God more. And essentially we want to live our lives with minimal reference from the Big Guy. Until we need something from Him, like answers.
This temptation finds fertile ground in an age so enamoured with technique and the technical. Here is Quentin Schultze's warning:"If we are not careful , even prayer can become just another instrumental technology to employ when everyday modes of control do not work. Prayer slips into machine logic, a means for manipulating God and neighbor to produce ourdesired results."
If our primary focus is on the right technique to get God to speak, how different then are we from those who are basically bosses of their own fates until they need something from the Big Guy? Then its time to visit the temple. Or the right holy men. And once we get the desired",
is something that is unlikely to happen if He gives us some technique to get Him to speak.
the whole thing's pretty long but thats the main part of it. just a thot as i was reading it last nite
;bassing at.
10:31 AM
