God is Practical Too

Our theme for chapel this semester is "Understanding our work as
worship." Today Dan Noyes spoke. He talked about the importance of the second greatest commandment to love others and how that should play out in our vocation. He gave examples of even non-Christians finding joy in helping others and said that he believed God built this desire to help others into us.

I asked myself how what I plan on doing will help others. And I came to the conclusion that I would help others by showing them God through the beauty of artistic design. I'd like to think this is my reason for going into this field but to be honest it's probably more selfish. It's more like, look at me, I have clever ideas and I can design them. But does this mean I should reconsider my career path because of the lack of purity in my motives? Or will God use my evil for his good? I'd like to believe the ladder.

Changing subjects, the other day I was having lunch with several friends. One of which happened to be Leah Greene. She was talking about her idea of studying abroad next semester. After discussing the pros and cons for awhile she said something to the effect of, "But I want to consult God on this before I make a decision." She then explained that she had recently regrettably made a decision before asking God about it and it turned out poorly for her.

It stuck out to me. She realized her mistake, learned from it and was determined to change her future course of action. For some reason it was refreshing to me to see someone who was genuinely trying to better herself before God. Maybe it struck me because it was so real and practical. One of those Christian concepts I had been taught all my life actually made logical sense. The idea of consulting God before a decision became not just the right thing to do, but something by which we would be better off. Not to downplay the importance of faith, but I'm glad God has reasons for telling us to do things and that he sometimes decides to share those with us.