How do people build things?
Microsoft has a webpage describing their vision, their tag line or the phrase they put up that will "grab" people by the heart. Because without a purpose or a vision whatever you build will not have an appeal to people's hearts. We are attracted to purpose not product. Just examine anything you own, and see whether you like it because it exists or because it serves a specific purpose.
Here's what Microsoft's vision states:
We believe the future of work will be centered around people. The following four themes guide our thinking.
1. COLLABORATIVE
BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER
2. INTELLIGENT
LIVING SMARTER
3. NATURAL
FRICTION FREE CREATIVITY
4. MOBILE
FLUID MOBILITY
It sounds pretty good! For a company building computers and advanced technology meant to serve human beings, this is a great vision! It brings people together, helps them grow smarter, provides the freedom of creativity and does not get stuck. This purpose is centered around serving humanity, and so the people who buy Microsoft products will be agreeing to the desire to be served by their products. This is good! Products made by man should serve man. The made should serve the maker. So what about man? If a product made by man serves the maker (man), then what about man who was made by God? Made serves maker, and this simply reveals order. Apart from this truth is disorder, as when a man begins to serve his computer. That just ain't right.
So what does it look like to build something with a center?
From the Microsoft example that means that whatever you build has a purpose and that purpose sits at the center of every idea, action, critique, and conversation. From hiring, working, new products, product changes, and even the lunch breaks serve to bring the central vision alive. For Microsoft, the center is man. For man the center is his maker, which is God. So it's good for computers and advanced technology to serve man so long as man himself lives to serve God.
Without the center in mind everything becomes chaotic and ambiguous. Confusion and disorder come into play.
So I can consider a few questions:
1. Do I know what my life centers around? (The purpose of my time, money and feelings).
My answer would be sometimes, because I forget what my purpose is and only when I am reminded can I make intentional steps toward serving it. If I forget what my life centers around then I'm like a Microsoft worker who doesn't know what the purpose of the new project is, and without the purpose not only will I be disconnected from my teammates but I will be making something with my own agenda or without a clue as to what I'm doing.
2. Does my perceived center and the results of it match up? (Is what I declare to be my center reflecting on the results of my actions?)
My answer would be again sometimes, because there are results in my life that I see matching up to what I want my center to be, and there are strands that lead to results that seem out of place as well....as if my center is contaminated. It's not fully disordered but it is disordered. In other words my center is in need of some clean up if I am to get rid of the results that do not serve it.
3. If my results do not reflect the center I claim on my life, then what? Am I open to consider that my center is something unknown to me?
My answer is a definite yes. This is hard, but this makes me realize how weak and needy I am for God to show me things beyond my ability to see. If I acknowledge that what I see does not match up with what I believe then it must mean that there is something I am not seeing and if I desire to see it then the means will not matter, so long as I can begin seeing.
4. If my center is unknown to me am I able or willing to change that?
I think not. I think that the only power I have in this situation is what I can see, and if what I can see is that I can't see then it is what it is. I accept that I cannot see, and this acceptance leads me closer to depending on someone else to see for me. People don't like being dependent but it gets easier when we accept who we are and what we need if our goal is to see the truth. If I cannot see, yet want to see, then I will go to someone, namely God, to see for me...even if my own eyes cannot see I will put on the eyes of God to see what He sees. Otherwise I am left unseeing as I am.
5. If my center is known, but not what I want it to be, am I able or willing to change that?
I think not based on what I believe about myself and about God. I believe that only God can change a person's heart (center), but I believe God desires for us to be changed so it's not a matter of whether or not He will change us but a matter of when He will change us. Timing is not ours to dictate, but if we see that something is off we also see that we are at the mercy of Him who uses time to change our hearts. This leads me to remember that what I see is not what God sees, because I see only what is right in front of me, but God sees what is further into eternity. Therefore, if my center is known and I see what it is, I remember that God is the one who is changing me into what it will be so I bank on His outcome not my own.
Therefore, once I realize that I am not in control of changing my center (the purpose), whether it is good or bad, but that I can see only as far as my results and the purpose for which I desire my results to match up with--just as a Microsoft worker cannot change the purpose of Microsoft but can only see as far as he or she is on board with it--so we too can only go so far as to what we can see.
This is all I can do, and this is what one will do if they desire to be on board with the purpose. It's humbling because after seeing my results I am left there. The metaphor of Microsoft breaks down at this point. Unlike the Microsoft worker who can examine his or her results and change, the Christian is left with the problem, unable to fix it. And this inability is instability, feeling inadequate, weak, and broken. We can only go so far as being broken, and the rest is in God's hands. And when we have reached the place of being broken we will be in a position of seeing our only hope. Not hope in ourselves, because we are broken, but hope in someone who is able to change us.
"Paul said if Christ ain't resurrected we've wasted our lives
Well that implies that our life's built around Jesus being alive"
-Lecrae, lyrics from "Don't waste your life"
If in Christ we have hope in this life only,
we are of all people most to be pitied.
1 Corinthians 15:19
What I can see is my brokenness, and if that's all there is then I am most to be pitied in this world, for I am only broken, but if Christ is alive then my brokenness is in the hands of God. The only one who can change what is broken into what is whole. I can see, but He is the one who changes me.
Build your life around Christ being alive by seeing and believing what is before you is being made into what God is doing.
Jmegrey
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