God's Very Intentional Design
Most people that I know would call me an extrovert. I’m loud, talkative and seem to enjoy crowds of people. If you put me in front of a group of strangers and asked me to give a speech, I’d be OK with that, as long as they were friendly strangers. I hate conflict but will often jump into the middle of it with two left feet because I so badly want truth to reign. Or at least how I see truth at the moment. I want to defend my position and the position of my friends and family. And I usually do a poor job of it so I need to learn to pull back and listen. Very, very difficult for me and people like me.
I love adventure and I love to explore. If you told me that my husband and I were going to spend two weeks in a different country each month for the next twelve months I would be over-the-top excited. My husband would most likely cringe. We travel because he loves me and wants to indulge this craving I have for new experiences.
But…having said all that, I need to add that I absolutely love being home. It’s such a warm, cozy, safe place filled with love and laughter and shared experiences. I’ve thrived through all the ups and downs of this covid season. Even the weeks that I had to practice full-on quarantine mode. I’ve indulged my need for adventure by taking long walks in the woods and long drives on the beautiful winding back-roads all around us here in the Ozarks.
And always with my camera. There’s something within me that seems to compel me to see God’s beauty, capture it on my phone (sometimes in a painting), and then share it with friends and family, hoping that they too will marvel at God’s amazing creation with me. I even use the hashtag #Godsamazingcreation repeatedly on Instagram.
Besides time in God’s Word, time alone with Him, and time with my husband, these activities fill me up and satisfy me on a deep level. Add writing to that list to make it complete. I write novels and through that writing, part of my need for adventure and exploration are satisfied. Currently, I’m having a blast with novel number three. (I will share more of that in a future blog.)
I’m writing this because I just listened to a radio broadcast from Family Life Today*, that talked about the vast differences in how God has wired individuals. Introverts, extroverts and many flavors in between. We respond to life differently and we recharge in completely different ways. Some need to be with people in order to rest and recharge. Others need solitude. One way isn’t better than the other. We will most likely be married to someone that is the opposite of ourselves or at least have a child or two that are the complete opposite.
It’s so easy to get frustrated with family members that don’t respond to situations the way we do. Something must be wrong with them and it’s our job to fix them. Or so we think.
Our real job is to back up a little, give them space, and with God’s help try to understand.
God designed each of us in a unique way. And His design is beautiful. He designs with great intention, so let it be far from us to try to redesign His beautiful work of art. That’s not to say we shouldn’t help it flourish. Like a delicate flower that we are trying to grow, we will, first of all, learn about its uniqueness. And within the context of that knowledge, we will feed it, water it, give it a safe environment and learn to cut away everything that harms it.
What God has done is beautiful. It is easy for me to see that beauty in lakes and woods and flowers and mountains and beaches and oceans. It is so much harder for me to see that beauty in people, even though we are the crowning glory of His Creation. I see it in babies and little children. But in adults? Not so much. Why? I’m sure it’s because we are so deeply marred by sin.
But, I do see it. Especially in God’s redeemed children. And I often see it in the unredeemed. All goodness, all love, all kindness is straight from the hand of God. And He’s been gracious enough to allow even the unredeemed to share in huge measures of that goodness. All of God’s goodness should point to Him. Soon it will be pulled away and the freedom to surrender to Him will also be gone.
My prayer is that, just as I see the beauty in nature, God would open my eyes to see past the ugliness of the sin in people, straight to the beautiful, precious creation He intended them to be.
O Lord , you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord , you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.
Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
(Psalm 139:1-16)
