Following the Road: Part 4 of 4
So did I go wrong majoring in Intercultural Studies. I don’t think so. It was part of my discovery of what God had for me. Plus it proved valuable. Through it I discovered my interest in culture. If you have read other posts you probably observed this. The classes I took have given me the tools to study our culture and how it relates to Christianity. Further more, working with children requires intercultural skills. How do you take the gospel and present in a child’s world? How do you contextualize what it means to be a Christian in a way that a 3 year old understands, without distorting the meaning? My major has prepared me for this.
Something that I want to make clear is that God guides people in different ways. I would be surprised if he guided you in exactly the same way as he has guided me. His character is always the same, but the way he displays his character may be different. It is always consistent with who he is though. I also don’t want to limit God. If he chooses to use dreams or another method of divine revelation to direct someone I am not going to stand in His way, as if I could.
To end I want to use a illustration that particularly resonates with me. The idea is from a Magdalene L’Engle book. God’s will for our lives is like poetry. People such as Shakespeare and Dante wrote using a very strict structure. Lines must be so long, rhyme, and have a specific rhythm. Today we would consider this stifling. However, within these very specific guidelines they had unlimited freedom. Reading their works you will discover an incredible creativity and beauty. Instead of constricting the writers these “limitations” served to heighten the greatness of their work. In the Bible God clearly lays out specific guidelines for our lives. Within this framework he provides us with immense freedom. It is up to us to produce a masterpiece.
Road Goes Ever On... 