West Cobb Church / Ken Williams Blog

I’m often asked what I think of Joel Osteen and similar teachers. I don’t think they’re false prophets, but I do think they’re little misguided because they ignore key parts of scripture. I read this blog from Donald Miller (one of my top three favorite authors) and Donald summarizes my thoughts about the Osteens of this world better than I can. So, I’ve copied Donald’s blog into my blog below. Read it and let me know you’re thoughts (BUT… don’t slam Joel Osteen and tele-evangelists in your comments – stay on topic and discuss the content).

If you want to read the blog directly from Donald’s blog, click here: http://donmilleris.com/2010/05/21/the-person-god-designed-you-to-be/

Here we go…

I’ve heard this little phrase in Christian circles that says “you can be the person God designed you to be.” The implications of the phrase are:

1. You are not the person God designed you to be and

2. The speaker or writer has some sort of formula that is going to help you become who God intended for you to be.

Now to be sure, every time I’ve heard this the intentions have been terrific. It’s always the nicest (and for that matter, most God fearing God loving better than my cynical self) people who say these things. If the world were more populated with people like them than people like me the world would be a better place, for sure. God knows they mean well, and they mean well for God and for you.

That said, I take issue with the phrase. I don’t believe you and I are going to be the people God intended for us to be until we get to heaven, until we are reunited with the Trinity. Until then, we are the people God never wanted us to be, that is people who are separated from Him. We have access to Him through Christ, but we won’t be with Him, as it were, until the wedding feast of the lamb, so until then, we are incomplete and that’s the most obvious truth in the world, all you have to do is watch the news, or have a video camera follow you around for an hour.

If you want a good picture of what life would be like if we were the person God created us to be, you just have to look at the book of Genesis. Moses repeats one descriptive phrase over and over, that before the fall, people walked around naked and weren’t ashamed. He really doesn’t explain much else. He just keeps going on about how when people were with God they could walk around naked. It actually makes you start wondering what Uncle Mosie was thinking.

But if you think about it, it’s quite a meaningful way of saying that, in the presence of God, we are hardly self aware. That is, we can walk around completely naked and feel no shame. That’s very hard to believe, you know, because every time I’m naked I am acutely aware of the fact I am naked. Honestly, it never slips my mind. I never find myself at the grocery store, catching a chill in the frozen food section when I suddenly realize I’m in my birthday suit.

What Moses is saying is that we were designed to live in the presence of God, and in His presence, and His presence alone, self awareness fades away, and we are made complete in an exchange of love we can’t possibly imagine. Moses, then, summed it up pretty well: They were naked and felt no shame.

And so when we hear we can be the people God designed us to be by obeying a formula, we are being sold snake oil. If you were the person God designed you to be, you’d walk around naked and not know it. In other words, if you were the person God designed you to be, you’d be in an insane asylum singing Third Day songs only wearing a keytar.

It sounds like a slight thing to contend with, but believing you can become some sort of actualized human being before the wedding feast of the lamb has negative emotional consequences. If you actually believe that, you aren’t going to be happy because you’ll spend your life believing you are missing out on some kind of life that isn’t accessible till you are reunited with God. No formula is going to reverse the affects of the fall of man. You don’t have that kind of power, and neither does a formula. God will bring you to Him when He chooses, and at that point you will be the person He designed you to be, namely, you’ll be with Him, which is what He designed you for.

Instead, Paul repeats over and over that what we have in Christ is hope. HOPE. He says he counts all things rubbish compared to the hope that awaits us in Christ. And he says the hope we have in Christ will not disappoint.

And there’s nothing depressing about that at all. Ever meet a girl who just got engaged? She’s happy. She’s not happy because she’s not married, she’s happy because she knows she’s going to get married. She has hope. In fact, the truth is she’s happier engaged than she ever will be married (booo….bad joke, just kidding. Please don’t tweet me angry, 140 character hate mails.)

What this means for me is that I can learn about God, I can pray to God, I can long for God, I can cry out to God, I can allow God’s principles to guide me in this vapor of a short life, I can enjoy my suffering as a point of reference for His eventual deliverance, but in terms of being an actualized human being, all I’ve got going for me is Christ. I’ve got nothing else. And Christ will reunite me with the Father, and at that point, I will be the person God designed me to be. I’ve got no hope in myself at all, and no hope in formulas. I’ve got all my hope in Christ.

So next time you’re reading a religious book and the author says you can be the person God designed you to be, flip to the back cover and look at the author picture. If said author is wearing clothes, put the book back on the shelf. It’s like my Uncle Mosie told us, Never trust a fella wearing clothes.

Every now and then, a ‘blue day’ sneaks up on me.  Of course, I’d always prefer ‘orange days’ -  bright and cheery.  They make me feel so much more spiritual, but some days just aren’t orange.  When I was younger, I didn’t know how to react to blue days.  Sometimes, I’d work harder (but as I got older, that didn’t work so well).  Then, I’d try to figure out why I’m blue (that just frustrated me).  So then I’d try to figure out what I needed to do to ‘snap out of it’ (that just frustrated me even more!).

I’ve had a ‘blue’ week this week.  Just in case you’re a fixer, please don’t send me your suggestions. They frustrate me even more than the ‘snap out of it’ platitudes.  It’s kinda funny, but all the little platitudes that I used in my 20′s don’t work anymore.

But here’s what I do when I get blue…

1.  Don’t Try to ‘Snap Out of It’. I don’t make these times come and I can’t make them go away.  I used to see them as bad… unspiritual, but I don’t anymore.  I see them as a gift from God.

2.  Slow Down. When I’m having a blue day (or week), I cancel some appointments and slow up my schedule.  I can’t cancel everything, but I can reschedule some.  God instructed Elijah to slow down when he was ‘blue’.  So, I figure that’s some pretty good advice.

3.  Pray More. My best prayer times are when I’m blue.  (For the record… orange days should also include great prayer times; but for me, they rarely do.)  As I pray, I try not to let my prayers digress into a pity party.  Instead, I spend time thanking God for the blessings he has given me.  This time of gratitude doesn’t make the clouds go away.  But it’s very good for my soul.

4.  Exercise & Sleep. We miss the importance of exercise and sleep in the Bible.  It was a NATURAL part of their DAILY routine.  They didn’t have cars, TV’s, or electricity to light the house at night.  They slept and exercised WAY MORE more than we do.

5.  Spend Time in Activities That Connect Me With God. In my last blog, I talked about how we connect with God.  For me, it’s nature and relationships.  When I’m blue, I try to increase these times.  I have some friends who listen so well.  I call them when I’m blue. Platitudes never flow from their mouths.  They’re gifts from God.  As for nature… The 10 on the Mellish Meter yesterday and today was a gift from God, just for little ole me… 

In the end, the ‘blue’ times go away.  They’re a phase.  But they’re a phase I enjoy and benefit from, rather than dread and ignore.

Join the discussion… What do you do when you have a blue day/week/month? btw… if you include any Christian platitudes in your comment, I may reach through the computer and strangle you.  (I’m more feisty when I’m blue.  LOL)

How do you best connect with God?  For me, it’s through His Creation.  I loved the prayer time at our church last Thursday because the organizers gave us two options… 1) pray in the worship center; or 2) take a prayer walk through the woods.  It didn’t take me two seconds to decide which option was for me.  Praying while I walk through nature energizes me.  Sunrises inspire me.  Ocean waves calm me.  Yet, when I pray while I’m sitting inside a room, I’m easily distracted (sorry God!).

We each have one or two primary ways of connecting with God, sensing His presence and experiencing spiritual growth.  Sometimes we think that we are inferior to others because we don’t have their pathway.  Other times, we feel superior, wondering why more people don’t connect with God the way we do.

John Ortberg – one of my absolute favorite writers – gives a great list of Spiritual Pathways.  Here they are:

1. Intellectual Pathway: “… draw closer to God as they learn more about Him.”
2. Relational Pathway: “… have a deep sense of God’s presence when they’re involved in significant relationships.”
3. Serving Pathway: “… God’s presence seems most tangible when they’re involved in helping others.”
4. Worship Pathway: “… have a natural gift for expression and celebration.”
5. Activist Pathway: “You have a passion to act.”
6. Contemplative Pathway: “God is most present to you when distractions and noises are removed.”
7. Creation Pathway: “… have a passionate ability to connect with God when they are experiencing the world He made.”

What’s your pathway?  When it’s left unchecked, do you feel it’s inferior or superior to others?  Can you share a recent time when God made His presence very real to you through your pathway?  I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts, so join the discussion and comment on this post.