{"id":537,"date":"2018-02-24T07:59:13","date_gmt":"2018-02-24T07:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/divergence.blog\/?p=537"},"modified":"2018-02-24T07:59:13","modified_gmt":"2018-02-24T07:59:13","slug":"god-cant-use-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/24\/god-cant-use-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"God Can\u2019t Use My Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So much of my early life in the FG world was about how God was \u201cusing\u201d my life then, or, was going to use my life in the future.\u00a0 A common theme or question during those years, was: What were my spiritual gifts and was I allowing God to use those gifts in my life?\u00a0 I was told to give my \u201clife\u201d to God.\u00a0 All of me.\u00a0 My talents, gifts, resources, dreams, hopes and all the rest, so God could use my \u201clife.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGod is going to use your life son,\u201d I heard more than once growing up.\u00a0 And I know they meant well.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t want a person to waste anything God had given them.\u00a0 None of us do.\u00a0 Much like the US Army, we want to be \u201call we can be\u201d for God.\u00a0 We want God to use our life.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t want to be like the one servant who buried his talents and did nothing with them.<\/p>\n

For those old enough to remember the movie \u201cThe Graduate\u201d there is a scene (see here<\/a>) where Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman) is moving past the adults present at his graduation party, trying to escape, really, their questions.\u00a0 Everyone wants to know what Benjamin is going to do with his life, what his plans are, and some have advice.\u00a0 One man cryptically pulls Benjamin aside, and almost conspiratorially says one word to him, \u201cplastics.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was in the late 60\u2019s, so perhaps plastics was the next big thing.\u00a0 Today it would probably be Tesla, Solar, or Bitcoin, I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 We want young people to be \u201csuccessful\u201d and to live with purpose, vigor, and gusto.\u00a0 We want them to hone their skills and talents\u2014put them to good use, so they can reap the rewards.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want them to miss the next train, the one that will take them to the \u201ctop.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the FG world, in similar times of transition, graduations, and so forth we were often pulled aside and whispered to regarding which college or seminary to attend, to be \u201csuccessful.\u201d\u00a0 We were also warned about the ones not to attend (\u201cway too liberal\u2026\u201d).\u00a0 There was whispering about which churches to attend and which pastors to know.\u00a0 So much help.\u00a0 So many pats on the back.\u00a0 Because if God was going to use my life, I had to make it a life worth using.<\/p>\n

And this meant pursuing, aggressively, the \u201cabundant life\u201d we were told about in John 10, which many of us thought meant the \u201cbest life\u201d Joel Osteen told us about.\u00a0 It meant we would get the life talked about in Jeremiah 29 and Proverbs 3.\u00a0 And, magically, amazingly, this life would look like the successful life of our secular counterparts, only it would be a religious life, a moral life, one God could truly bless and be happy about.\u00a0 But, it would look the same as the others as far as the nice car, nice house, white picket fence, good job, 2.5 children, time share, pension, and tooth sparkle with the wide grin when photographed.<\/p>\n

Over time however, I ran up against a sobering and, at first, almost painful, thought.\u00a0 What if God was more interested in my death than my life?\u00a0 Obviously, I don\u2019t mean a physical death.\u00a0 I mean something far more horrible.\u00a0 I mean the death of my ego, pride, and false self.\u00a0 I mean the death of striving to \u201clive\u201d a \u201csuccessful\u201d life; a life lived in the way too many of us were told it should be lived to be seen as not wasting our gifts or talents.\u00a0 I mean the death of the picture I had built (and had built for me by my culture)\u2014the picture of a successful Christian and what that was supposed to look like.<\/p>\n

What if God wanted all the masks, all the facades, all the play-acting, all the structures I had built to hide behind, gone?\u00a0 What if I was being asked to stand naked before this God?\u00a0 Then what?\u00a0 Well, the fraud (me) would be exposed.\u00a0 I would rather die first.\u00a0 Exactly.<\/p>\n

I still wear plenty of masks, play-act, and try to hide from God, myself, and you.\u00a0 It\u2019s a slow death for me, this Christian life.\u00a0 But I\u2019m finding there is a greater possibility of living, when I first begin to understand the dying part.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m learning that God can\u2019t use my life, but he can certainly use my death.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is a web of trials and temptations, but only one of them can ever be fatal, and that is the temptation to think it is by further, better, and more aggressive living that we can have life. But that will never work. If the world could have lived its way to salvation, it would have, long ago. The fact is that it can only die its way there, lose its way there\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n

For Jesus came to raise the dead. He did not come to reward the rewardable, improve the improvable, or correct the correctable; he came simply to be the resurrection and the life of those who will take their stand on a death he can use instead of on a life he cannot.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2013 Robert Capon<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So much of my early life in the FG world was about how God was \u201cusing\u201d my life then, or, was going to use my life in the future.\u00a0 A common theme or question during those years, was: What were my spiritual gifts and was I allowing God to use those gifts in my life?\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3524,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[101,392,434,437,452,464],"class_list":["post-537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-discipleship","tag-robert-capon","tag-spiritual-direction","tag-spiritual-gifts","tag-talents","tag-the-graduate"],"yoast_head":"\nGod Can\u2019t Use My Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So much of my early life in the FG world was about how God was \u201cusing\u201d my life then, or, was going to use my life in the future.\u00a0 A common theme or\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/24\/god-cant-use-my-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God Can\u2019t Use My Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So much of my early life in the FG world was about how God was \u201cusing\u201d my life then, or, was going to use my life in the future.\u00a0 A common theme or\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/24\/god-cant-use-my-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Divergence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-02-24T07:59:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@darrelllackey1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darrell Lackey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/24\/god-cant-use-my-life\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/24\/god-cant-use-my-life\/\",\"name\":\"God Can\u2019t Use My Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-02-24T07:59:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-02-24T07:59:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#\/schema\/person\/d88a32b8d4b5f40fbd6ccbfce4e0f813\"},\"description\":\"So much of my early life in the FG world was about how God was \u201cusing\u201d my life then, or, was going to use my life in the future.\u00a0 A common theme or\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/24\/god-cant-use-my-life\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/24\/god-cant-use-my-life\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/2018\/02\/24\/god-cant-use-my-life\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"God Can\u2019t Use My Life\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/divergence\/\",\"name\":\"Divergence\",\"description\":\"Commentary Regarding Fundamentalism - 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