Day Two: " You Are Not an Accident

Key Points:
You are alive because God wanted to create you and he custom made your body just the way he wanted it.
God left no detail to chance, he planned it all for his purpose.
God never does anything accidentally and he never makes mistakes. He has a reason for everything he creates.
God's motive for creating you was his love
Why? Because God is love
There is a God who made you for a reason and your life has profound meaning, we discover that meaning and purpose only when we make God the reference point of our lives.

Verse: " I am your creator. You were in my care even before you were born. " Isaiah 44:2

I find it a funny coincidence that as I am reading this section in the book the song playing on my computer is quoting "one answer,more questions" While I have plenty of questions, it becomes clearer and clearer that there really is only one answer and the answer is God and God's plan. In all things, I believe that we are suppose to find peace in knowing that if we are truly following God then the answer to all our questions is God. Funny right? But then again I did read some where that coincidences are really "god things". I had the absolute privilege of going to a service at Athens Church this morning, a church as I found out was committed to helping people grow in a personal relationship with Christ. Its one of the more popular church's in the area and it's welcoming environment made me feel right at home. Weekly attendance and perhaps involved in a small group is another part of my resolution because I know that this is not something that I can do alone. Excitingly enough the service, as i suspect it was suppose to do, felt very much directed at me. What does it mean to be a Christian? ah ha! I was wondering that! In the end we spent time on a passage in Matthew that I did in fact remember from previous bible study. To sum it up, love God and love people, that is what it means to be a Christian. Good in theory, hard is practice...but I'm working on it.
Two very interesting points stuck out to me as I read this chapter in the book. First God is love...I never really looked at it that way. So basically what I think this means is that to love one another and to truly be in love with someone else we must first know God. Because if God is love than true love cannot be found without him. This leads to be view my wants and needs in a relationship in a WHOLE new way that I don't think I ever have before. It has always been important to me that the men I date be "Christians" but finding a man who loves God is entirely different. As I grow in a relationship with a man I also want to grow together in a relationship with Christ. WOW! Secondly the concept of making God the reference point in our lives as the path to discovering our purpose immediately took me back to a horrifying moment in my dreaded economic theory class from last semester. Prospect theory...risk tolerance from the reference point of a loss or a gain. The reference point used by the investor shapes their behavior, when viewing a situation from a flawed reference point investors make irrational and often harmful financial decisions. I can see the connections...when we asses our actions decisions etc from a reference point other than God the outcome is wrong. But with God as a reference point for our lives we are able to make correct decisions and find out purpose! I take it back Dr. Getz, I was able to apply this theory outside of class. Congratulations you were right!
While I am not exactly sure the revaluations that I came too while reading this chapter were what the author was intending, they are revaluations all the same. To address the discussion question, " what areas of my personality, background, and physical appearance am I struggling to accept?" I'm not sure...most days I feel pretty and confident in the abilities God has granted me but I do let my mind wonder to the what if's. What if's are dangerous things...what if I had gone to a different college? What if I had been a better runner? What if I had stayed a nursing major? Would things be better? It's pretty easy for me to what if myself to mental exhaustion that leaves me defeated. Recently that I read that God is no concerned with the past but only with the future and the poem in the closing remarks states " No, the trauma you faced was not easy and God wept that it hurt you so, but it was allowed to shape your heart so that into his likeness you'd grow. No more what if's..only what will be...