A Whole New Day

A few of you have asked how the GRE went last week. I guess Friday's passive aggressive post didn't really let on too much. Let's just say it could have gone better. Quantitative was good and I feel good about the writing portion (though I won't know for sure on that for another week or so), but the verbal section was brutal. It was not nearly good enough. Imagine someone handing you a Webster's dictionary and saying to you, "okay, you will be taking a test with 30 questions that will be based on info in the book. Good luck." Yeah... Given familiar terminology you would do really well. Or given unfamiliar vocabulary you would do really not well. My score wasn't horrible, but it certainly wasn't good enough for my personal standards. I am signed up to do the test again on November 5th. We shall see. Thanks for your prayers, concerns, and exceptionally encouraging words (you know who you are). I did enjoy some Shiner Bock on Friday night, but I'm really not that big of a drinker so I pretty much fell asleep in front of the TV with Michele after two bottles.

Life goes on, the world keeps spinning even after bummer GREs and horrible college football results. God is still on the throne and appears to be quite unfazed. (And He still is an Aggie by the way... I'm just sayin'.)

The whole GRE thing got me thinking about how great of a sense of humor God must have. Our plans must make Him chuckle a fair amount. When I was nineteen I was a pre-law business major at Texas A&M University (home of the fightin' Texas Aggies). By the age of twenty I had determined that I would be a corporate lawyer. After a year of law school in downtown Houston God chuckled. It wasn't that He didn't care, or that He enjoyed seeing me flounder, He just knew He had bigger plans for me and wasn't too worried about the details. While I had my life planned out He patiently waited for me to get on His page and trust Him to do the stage directing. While some people are meant to be corporate lawyers, I am not one of them. I don't regret my path, it has led me to where I am today. And though I don't have anything close to a perfect life, I have a really good one. I've got a cool chick and some hip kiddos. (Reading that last sentence, do I think I live in 1953 or something?)

And if my personal example isn't tangible enough to drive home God's amusement with us then you should try opening up a Bible. Now that there is a book full of irony, idiocy, and oddly channeled misdirections. Some people get intimidated by the Holy Scriptures, but if you read them they become much more human and relatable. God used some major numbnuts in there. Noah--a guy who really enjoyed tilting back the bottle. Abraham--the patriarch who made some downright dumb decisions. Moses--a murderer with a speech impediment who was called on to lead a nation. David--an adulterer and murderer who God called a man after His heart. Solomon--major polygamist. Jesus' disciples--a motley crew of guys who denied Christ, rejected Him, and didn't really understand Him. Paul--the persecutor of Christians who was used as one of the greatest Christian evangelists of all time. Basically we see through the pages of Scripture that God can use anyone. If He could use some of the crazy characters He used in there, then He can certainly use us.

In fact I would argue that He chose to use the unlikely folks He did for the very purpose of showing us how He can use anyone. If He had decided to only work through exemplary characters then we would never feel qualified to be used. Very few of us are called to ordained vocational ministry, but I believe every person on earth has been called to be a minister of the gospel. Now not everyone has yet come to accept the Good News, but God wants all of us to know Him and to be used for the furtherance of His kingdom. I have a great deal of respect for the Catholic Church and my Catholic friends. I vocally deny any suggestion that Christianity was born in 1517. But that having been said I think the Protestant Reformation did some really good things that Catholicism has retrospectively embraced through things like Vatican II. One of the best things to come out of the Reformation was the idea of the Priesthood of All Believers. Basically everyone is called to act as priest. If "priest" means a mediator between God and man then every believer is called to that vocation. Though some certainly are, most of us aren't meant to work at a church, but we are all called to be mediators of God's promises of love, freedom, and hope.

So ultimately we are more likely to achieve success if we get on board with His plans. In the end my life is meant to glorify Him. If I do nothing else in my life but point people towards Christ then my life will have both meaning and purpose. As for the details of how He chooses to use that, we shall see. But so long as He is there in the end it will work out for the best. My prayer is that November 5th would be a part of achieving His plans.

Have a great day and an even better week. It is a new day full of new possibilities. Psalm 118:24: "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it" ...no matter what it entails.