As a teen I had no boundaries. My parents let me get my own subscription to
Playboy before I was eighteen. I had no
curfew. My moms’ only rule was to call
and let her know where I was and to provide an ETA. Some might think this wonderful. They’d be wrong.
Up through
college I tried working out my own personal guidelines. I’d found some anchors along the way but an
anchor’s no good unless secured. I
wandered a lot. I tried to figure out my
career path without a counselor. I
screwed up many a relationship. Pride
and foolishness caused many a crash; spiritually, relationally and
physically. I got nobody pregnant and I
didn’t kill anybody (though I came stupidly close on both accounts). I didn’t get into drugs. God kept me from ruin.
Up through
the 20’s I was everything but firmly planted.
Boundaries are important.
Principled living guides one’s life along a solid pathway. Psalm 1 puts it like this, “…He will be
like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which
yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in
whatever he does, he prospers.” As
I grew older I discovered key concepts to live by.
The Bible
is the filter through which I find my parameters. It is the bedrock for every other tenet that
I hold to. In that vein I have some
nuggets which keep me on track:
“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in
Him,” which is John Pipers’ summation of all of scripture. “A ship in a harbor is safe, but that’s not
what ships are built for,” a saying which adorned my wall when I was a
teen. A life truly lived means taking
chances. “Let people feel the weight of
who you are and let them deal with it,” an Eldredge quote—put simply---be
yourself. Finally that principle taken
from Jesus which is that we are to die to self and live for others.
I view my
early years with considerable regret and some personal pain. Though there was considerable joy and
richness of experience there were some serious mistakes whose ripples are still
felt. Now I can run my questions and
experiences through a grid that’s not all about me (and I always wish it were
less about me). Now I have sound
principles to securely guide my heart and my actions. A great deal of peace flows from that.
There is
some wisdom in hammering out our own guiding principles. The caveat however is that any principle
apart from God will eventually shipwreck us.
Hammering out our own principles is good, ‘working out our salvation
with trembling” is better.
1 comment:
Timing is always interesting. Just today I was speaking to a group of students and one asked me, "What's the most important thing you look for in an applicant" and I told her without hesitation, "Filters."
Glenn
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