SOLID ROCK::ROCK SOLID

Thinking about direction in life, Tim often reminds me that it's not about what we want to do or accomplish in life, but who we want to become. He told me about a conversation recently where he realized that what we build our lives around a) we need to be intentional about and b) really make a difference later in life.

We need to be intentional: Each of us is born into an environment where a certain set of values is passed on to us. As we mature into adults, we have a choice – to keep those values by default or to think them through and come up with our own. If we are not carefully intentional about it, we will end up drifting through life and passively allowing values which are not necessarily our own to shape us. None of us lives without values in place. It’s just whether or not we’re conscious of them.

The second idea is linked to the first. If, for example, the value of work is passed on and a person adopts it as their own (either consciously or unconsciously) and centers their lives upon work, when they retire, their whole world needs to be reoriented. This then becomes a rather disorienting experience. (This can also apply to family, health, wealth, etc.) If, on the other hand, a person carefully thinks through their life priorities and centers their lives on becoming a person with certain characteristics, or knowing or loving God to their best ability, even when life circumstances change, they do not need to reorient their lives.

With this in mind, I have been thinking about who I want to become. I’ve come up with two qualities so far:
1. To be an obedient child of God: one whose heart is acutely attuned and responsive to Him.
2. To be a person of grace: one who lives freely in the grace of Christ and extends it to others.

I suspect there will be more qualities to come, but we’ll start from here. ;)

I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.
~Luke 6:47-49~