Your best future is aligned with God’s purpose for your life. That’s a simple statement, but there’s deep truth in it. Once we grasp this truth and give ourselves fully to living it out, our lives change for the better.
Here’s the challenge: Our minds aren’t naturally oriented toward a spiritual perspective, so we have to retrain them. This takes constant vigilance and a lifetime of moving from ignorance to wisdom, from confusion to clarity.
In our unenlightened way of thinking, we believe we can create a better future for ourselves. That future awaits us, we erroneously think, if we will just work hard, get the right kind of education, meet the right people, direct our best resources toward achieving our goals, and so on.
Because we can identify many high-profile people who’ve made it to the top through this mindset, it seems almost un-American to question it. But if we look more closely, we’ll find widespread unhappiness and depression at the top, and this sad reality exposes the dark side of this mindset.
Among the spiritual revolutionaries of the Bible we find a very different orientation. For them, life isn’t about getting to the top; it’s about finding God’s purpose for your life and giving yourself to it right where you are. Sometimes a corollary of following God’s purpose is that you end up at the top, but just as often, walking this less-traveled road will radicalize you and get you into all kinds of trouble. The point is, no matter what your external situation looks like, you will be blessed internally with love, joy, peace, and freedom when your life is aligned with God’s will.
Jesus of Nazareth was the greatest spiritual revolutionary of all, but even he didn’t discover God’s purpose for his life all at once. It had to be revealed to him through prayer and through his daily interaction with the people and situations he encountered.
This Sunday, we’ll go with Jesus to a wedding in Cana of Galilee. By observing how he responds to the challenging situation that confronts him, we’ll grow in our understanding of how “The Alignment Effect” works in our lives. As we worship together, may you be blessed with many healing and empowering discoveries!
With love and warmth,
Evan Howard,
Minister