The Complete Guide To Sorting Out Your Life

In a charity shop today I came across a book with a very ambitious title.  I can't quite remember how it was worded, but it was something like The Complete Guide to Fixing Your Life.  Or The Complete Guide to Sorting Out Your Life.

 

Naturally, I was intrigued.

 

I must say I was rather disappointed with the contents as it was primarily a book about changing your diet to incorporate more fruit and veg and unrefined foods etc.  Not quite the life-changing tome the title suggested.

 

There have definitely been times in my life when I have wished for such a guide to life.  A guide which would have fixed everything or sorted it all out.

 

I think often we can look at the Bible as a collection of interesting thoughts or 'catchy' proverbs.  Along with Shakespeare, it is probably one of the most quoted and referenced books.

 

But it is so much more than a collection of dusty, over-used proverbs or snappy phrases.

 

I love how Jesus described His words,

 

“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living.  They are foundational words, words to build a life on.  If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock.  Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit - but nothing moved that house.  It was fixed to the rock.

But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach.  When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards.”

[Matthew 7:24-27 MSG]
 

The words in the Bible aren't just catchphrases for us to toss around and slip into conversation.  Or rather, if that is all they are to us, then we will never understand their true meaning and their true power in transforming our lives.

But when we work the words of the Bible into our lives, when we build our lives upon them, when we make them our foundation, we find ourselves equipped with a complete guide to truly sorting out our lives.



 

Single-Minded Pursuit

I watched the film 'Mr Bean's Holiday' this afternoon.  I've never seen it before, so I had it on in the background whilst I was doing other things.

 

He wins a holiday to Cannes in the south of France, but inevitably struggles to get there in a straightforward manner.

 

At one point in the film, he has mistakenly taken the wrong taxi across Paris and ended up in the furthest place from where he wanted to be: Gare de Lyon station.  He finds a tourist 'You are Here ' map and locates where he currently is in comparison to the station.

 

Once he realises he is as far away as he possibly could be, he sets his compass for the direction of Gare de Lyon and begins walking.

 

And he walks in a completely straight line.

 

In true Bean style, he stops walking when a stationary pedestrian is in his way and he waits for the pedestrian to move.  When he encounters a row of benches, he simply walks over them.

 

He walks along main roads, in the middle of traffic and nearly causes many accidents as cars swerve to avoid hitting him.

 

He is a man on a mission and several scenes later he arrives at Gare de Lyon.

 

He pursues his mission single-mindedly and he doesn't veer off course until he reaches his destination.

 

Yesterday I wrote about God guiding us along the path to everlasting life.  But it's not enough to just have the path mapped out for us.  We need to walk in it.

 

The Psalmist advises a similar, single-minded pursuit to that seen by Bean:

"You're blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God.  You're blessed when you follow his directions, doing your best to find him.  That's right - you don't go off on your own; you walk straight along the road he set [...] I’m single-minded in pursuit of you."

 

[Psalm 119:1-3, 9 MSG] 

 

 

How do we stay on course?

"Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in."

 

[Hebrews 12:2 MSG] 

 

This is the kind of pursuit I want to have.  This is the single-mindedness I want. 

 

The path is before me.  I have only to walk in it.