Our Lives are a Parable

I really don’t know myself at all. If you are honest you haven’t a clue as to who you are either.

We define ourselves by what we’ve been told or by what we tell ourselves but true revelation can come from only one, the one who made us.

It takes a lifetime for the creator to expose to His creation his/her purpose. “Our lives are parables. God is making us spell out our own souls.” (Oswald Chambers)

I love that line. It says so much to me. I wish I could remember that simple concept as my day falls apart or when people appear to get in my way.

All the parables in the Bible have difficulty and drama in them, if they didn’t we wouldn’t remember them or they would be simply facts to fill in a story.

We want interesting lives and yet when the author of our lives brings turmoil and surprises we recoil wishing things to be “normal” again.

It is easy to look at the lives of others and define what we think is happening but when it comes to our own we are too close to the main character to make an accurate assessment. We need the help of the author to reveal our strengths and our weaknesses not to get better but just to live right.

Perhaps figuring out life is not the true purpose. Perhaps it is simply to live with an audience of one, the one who gave us life and breath and reason.

1 Comment

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  Scott January 14, 2012 at 7:09 pm

  When I graduated from PSU last June, after several years of not working, I found an entry-level job that caused a great deal of turmoil in my life for several months. I delivered produce. Now, you might say “How can that be hard?” Believe me, it’s not as easy as it looks. First off: no one appreciates you on the road. Once you’re indoors, you’re often treated as being “in the way,” and a nuisance. Your bosses could care less about you, and the general public treats you as a pitiful nobody whose “stuck” in this very physical dead-end job that they are thankful they aren’t stuck in like you are. Oh, and the thing I resented most: the day isn’t done until the last delivery is done – which could be anywhere from 6 to 14 hours (depending on how many fiascos you had to deal with that day) from the moment you clocked in. I like my day to end when the DAY is done, rather than when the JOB is done. I’m pretty much physically awkward and SLOW, so this very very physical job takes its toll quick!! After not having to work for several years, I got used to calling my own shots: not having to answer to anybody but myself. On my deliveries around Portland I’d see execs in town doing their “power lunches,” Insurance office people taxiing a coffee cup down the hall in their $300 Dansko shoes, slacks and comfortable sweaters and whatnot. Then I’d look down at my goofy mint-colored uniform which had my first name embroidered on the breast and I would complain, “Why do I have to have THIS job? It SUCKS!” While I never got very good at the job (I’m clumsy and SLOW, remember), I still came to the conclusion that I was acting like a spoiled brat with an entitlement complex, and that I needed to embrace whatever it was God was doing in my life. That’s where the joy came! I’ve been walking with the Lord long enough to know that when the tough times come, THAT is when the Lord is doing something really cool. The reality is, that all my flaws were beginning to come out and through this job I wasn’t very good at, I was able to see many of my unlimited number of flaws (and so was everyone else, I might add…). I don’t know about you, but in times like these, all I have is God, so I draw near to Him real real close. Funny how with God, the worst of times in life wind up being our best of times. In the end, my managers praised me for being such a great employee because my outward attitude toward them was one of diligence and patience. I worked hard to get better at this job I wasn’t so good at. Eventually, through absolutely NO merit of my own I was offered a job with better hours, and that I’m much more gifted at. Make no mistake, I am grateful for my experience as a meager produce truck driver. And I realize more now than ever how hard work is despised in our country, and that’s sad.