Essay insight
Hi!
I don't think we could all handle another "free for all" blog post (or I'm not sure Gibby would survive the anger, anyway), so today we're just going to discuss our essay topic for the week (due tomorrow, by the way). Do you feel God had created you for some set purpose, as Santiago felt about fishing. It was, he said, something he was born to do. If you don't feel driven to one (or many) life tasks, then how do you know when you are in the middle of God's will? How do you seek out God's will for your life?
Love,
Mrs. D
posted by Sister Sara @ 5:55 PM
21 comments
21 Comments:
Based upon my truly biased, personal, and often times, unknowledgeable(I think that's a word) is that God doesn't really have a set plan for our lives. He obviously knows exactly what's going to happen, so nothing we do is a suprise to God, but I think as long as we're under God's law (meaning, obey His commands to the best of our ability, not just the 10 commandments, but all of Jesus' examples too). So, I don't think you can really stray from God's plan for your life as long as you stay on track spiritually. "God works out all things for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." So, follow God's instructions, and He will guide your path. ral for you to do, and God will bless you if it's
And I love how Dookieheadman doesn't even answer the question... nice job Gibby
What I was made for. That's a toughy. I'm certain most of you will find my notion quaint, but frankly I don't care. After reading the last blog and seeing the comments I have to say I'm dissappointed in people. If you disagree with someone be polite or don't say anything. ANYWAYS, I have this quaint notion that God put me here to sing. There is nothing in this world I like to do more. Sometimes I question my talent and think there is no possible way for me to break into the music industry. But If I am put on this earth to sing and God is on my side, I can't help but make it. In college I want to major in Spanish and vocal performance (a double major). I also want to have a enough money later to support myself and my family, but to have enough to help others in need. Oh, after my first four years of college I plan to go to law school (hopefully regent).
P.S. Will's blog disagreed with Marissa's, but it was very respectful. You can be frank without being a jerk. Great Job Will. His is a great example of disagreeing without taking things personally.
Wow this should be fun. So I must say that I believe God has created each person for a specific purpose. If you look at it, when you are in God's will and you are connected spiritually to him (as Marrissa said), random surprising things happen either in your school, your job, or some organization that really helps you out. Clearly it was from God. Then that leads to something else clearly from God and so on and so forth. So when you are in God's will, He opens doors (as Stephanie said) and closes others and makes a very deffinate path for where we should go.
Also, it's been my experience that when you've been seeking God about what He has for you, He'll often times put a desire in your heart for something and then He'll open the door in a way that you couldn't even have dreamed of. It happened to me and I know there was nothing I could have done to bring it about. It just happened.
That being said, even when we are in God's presence it's sometimes hard to find the right path. Maybe there are multiple things we are interested in and many things we feel like God's gifted us with. In that case it would be much easier to pick a path that maybe God couldn't use us as much. For instance, you go to a different school for a career and people are very closed to you and the gospel, you have no friends, no church, and no encouragement. These don't neccesarily(spelling?) mean you did the wrong thing, but maybe it wasn't the best thing. If this happens though, God can still use it to work out His plan. "God works out all things for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." So even if we take the wrong path, God will still work things out to our good.
I'm not quite sure what God made me for. I don't know what to do with my life, and I have no idea what I'm doing after I graduate. I do believe that God made different people to do different things; some people (like Gibby and Eric [my future brother-in-law]) are really good at talking to people and making them think, and other people are really good at serving and not so good at talking. But there's still a balance that I'm trying to figure out, because even though I don't like getting in people's faces, I am supposed to be leading people to God and stuff. So, I'm sure that God has a plan for my life but I don't know what it is yet.
From Stephanie Gray:
We seek out God's will for our life by living our life. God has placed desires in all of us. When you finally feel those desires satisfied, you know you are doing what God made you for. For me it was when I went to Ukraine. I had always had a desire to be one, but it wasn't until I went on a missions trip that I truly knew that was what I was made to do. God doesn't hide his will for us. "Seek and you will find." So all we have to do is seek God's will and he'll show it to us.
Stephanie Gray
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Can I say one more thing? I'm not yelling at anyone or accusing anyone or any place for that matter, these are just some thoughts I had. I just read the previous blog and all of Gibby's "offensive" material. A few things popped into my head. In Fahrenheit 451, Clarrise was killed because she "bothered" people. She made people think. She caused them to at least find some sort of foundation for why they believed what they believed. Also, Jesus offended many people when He preached because people didn't want to hear they were wrong. I don't like to hear when I'm wrong. But sometimes, we need to hear it. Also, people would take Jesus's words and twist them and accuse him with their twisted interpretation.
Now Gibby is deffinately not Clarrise McClellan (Gibby's male) and he's deffinately not Jesus (I think he'd agree with me), but when I read through Gibby's comments on the blog I never once read anything that said "How can we call ourselves Christians if we go to SFCC." Which is what I heard the majority of you say he said. What Gibby really said is "Can we really call ourselves Christians if we slack off so much in our education that a "real" college doesn't want to admit us?" You can check if you'd like. I just copied and pasted it. He wasn't saying are we Christians if we go to Santa Fe. I think what he was getting at is are we being Christ-like (that's what a Christian is) if we take the gifts He's given us for granted and lay them to waiste as we settle for something we haven't put any though into.
In Gibby's past experience as well as in my own, many people he's seen go to Santa Fe have aproached school in general with low regard and decided to go to Santa Fe because of convenience, WITHOUT PUTTING THOUGHT INTO IT. Is there anything wrong with convenience? No. If you have put thought into it and you have a plan or at least an idea of what you want to do and you are pursuing it, don't worry because you have an idea. You've THOUGHT about it. I realize Gibby said some different things too, but those are his beliefs gathered from his life experiences, his influences, and what he has felt God putting on his heart.
I must say, Gibby challenged me to think. He said somethings I didn't want to hear. So I need to pray about it and see what God says. As we're talking about in this blog, everyone is created with a different purpose. So if it's God's will for you to go to Santa Fe, you're not being a fool. Santa Fe needs Christians too, but don't treat that decision lightly.
Basically, it all comes down to this. Are we honoring God with our lives? If so, keep up the good work. If not (which I know most of us, even myself are not honoring God with our whole lives) we need to start now. I'll end with some verses from the Bible. We should all go pray and think about it and find out what God says. But make sure you know that what you conclude is what God says. In Proverbs 14:15 it says, "A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps." And in Proverbs 28:26 it says "He who trusts in himself is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom is kept safe." Are we honoring God with our money, our education, our interactions with others, and our lives? We need to be.
Ok, sorry if my post was confusing, but I just think that in a way, God has a plan for us, but at the same time, we're almost not limited to that set plan. So, big scheme of things, God has a huge plan for my life, He knows exactly what's going to happen, and He allows me to make choices based on that plan. The plan is the same, but I make the decisions myself... gosh I think i'm confusing myself, but all I really want to do is go to college and get my AA in Nursing, then work possibly in ER, get a Great Dane, and after I've saved enough money, move to Europe and travel 'til the end of my life. There, no confusion there!
By the way, after I get my AA I want to go to USF in Tampa, finish up anything, and then go from there...
And yes, people are entitled to their opinions, and yes Gibby has some points, but generalizations cannot be made about every single individual who goes to a certain college, makes a certain decision, or buys a certain car. Everyone's lives are different and you can't know all the circumstances surrounding those people, you can guess, but you'll never really know unless it's you or you live there or whatever else.
Ok, quick question if anyone else check the blog again, but can you ever stray from God's will? I mean, God knows what's going to happen all the time, so really, whatever you do is in His will...
I don't know. I think it's that we choose what we're going to do and just knows before we choose, but he doesn't choose it for us. I don't really know how this works though. Ask God. Lol, but really pray about it maybe you'll get an answer.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm thinking Stephen deserves bonus points... I'm not quite certain he answered the blog correctly, patently not personally, but delightful all the same because he mentioned my entire family... well, he mentioned all Dagens. He missed a few.
Keep writing! For a minute there, I thought Patrick was threatening Gibby when he mentioned Clarisse and Jesus.... Whew.
Oh, and thanks, Will, for being appreciative. I was hoping it would be helpful. I knew people were struggling a bit with the topic because if you don't feel "born for something" then oftentimes you haven't a clue. I remember wishing I wasn't so good at everything (I'm learning from Gibby, see?), because if I was only good at one thing, then I would clearly know what God wanted me to do. But now I'm glad I'm good at so many things!
Signed,
the Egotistical One
No Mrs. D, I was deffinately not trying to start a stoning or anything. I love Gibby! Even though I can't get the kind of side burns he has I still like him. But anyways, Marissa, I do think we can stray from God's will for us. I see God as being outside of time. It's not like he sees stuff as, "In so many years Patrick will do this." No I see it like he sees the whole picture at once. For instance, if we are looking at a picture of a man walking towards a split in the road and then in the same picture the same man is one a certain part of that split in the road, we obviously know what he's going to do... even though the first time we see the man he doesn't know what's coming. Does that make sense? God can understand time, but He is not limited to time. So if we do take the wrong path and stray from His will, He can still set stuff up to get us back on track... if we take those paths. Does that help? I hope that helps. If not, well I tried to help. Sometimes I confuse myself too. :) But these are just thoughts I've had. Don't take it for fact. Please! lol.
I don't believe I'm good at anything. That is a fact. Morever,I tend to scoff at the proposition that God creates all of us for a "specific" purpose. However, when you consider the fact that God knows everything (which, just for the record, would make it EXCEEDINGLY boring up there if you ask me... but I'm not God, fortunately) means that God knows exactly what we are going to do, therefore he knows all the skills we will need, therefore he knows that some of us will end up committing suicide at age 11 (if anyone is wondering, I do have a specific person in mind when I say this) and therefore need no skills.
The question now is, why would God even choose to create people who are just going to die by suicide? What is the point? Sure, some of the people in the world commit suicide happen to be Christians and therefore get into heaven, but what about the vast majority that don't? For that matter, why does he even bother creating people that go to hell anyways? Heck, why even make people, why not just make everyone go to heaven?
You see why I want to stab advocators of "predestination" in the face. Yes, God knows everything, and yes, God has the ability to control everything (he made this endless universe, after all), but what kind of fun would that be? I mean, God didn't just decide "Hey, I'm pretty bored by myself, I think I'll create this big elaborate thing and then control it all." Heck, if I was God, I would sit back and watch my humans destroy themselves with the stuff their brilliant minds could conceive. Sure, it kinda hurts to see the most intelligent and unique species make complete fools of themselves, killing each other despite having plenty of food and shelter, proclaiming themselves God when they clearly are not, (in fact, they even have a nifty little thing called the conscious that tells them this), and just in general making terrible waste of their potential.
Can you really blame God for bringing the flood? Heck, I would have destroyed everyone, everything and started over.
Or maybe God is so busy with all his creations (after all, what is to say that we are the only inhabited planet? The universe is, basically, infinite, because it doesn't really make sense that it just *stops*, unless in happens to curl into itself like some Mario game. That would be pretty cool, just for the record) that he feels stressed micromanaging all of us. If he made his other beings anywhere near as stupid as we are, that must be frustrating.
I don't know God, so I don't know why He chose to make such a flawed world... I guess that he knows that "playing God" (no pun intended) isn't really all that much fun. After, the wonderful free will that he gave us is clearly present in the angels (must I remind anyone *why* we have a heaven and a hell in the first place?).
By the way, if this made you mad...
I don't care. But, I would be happy to debate it with you. I'm kinda craving some intellectual stimulation right now...
Just a little addendum...
Gibby, those sideburns make me mad jealous. Keep rocking those bad boys!
Here is another one. I have to say I agree almost 100% with Jake's post, but I'm a sucker for a happy ending. So, in the end, everyone good lives. And yes jake, I am aware there is no such thing as "good". :)
Graded.
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