This post is part of our "Purpose Driven Life" book study, the first official Christian Boylove Forum book study. If you do not own the book, you can read the first few chapters for free here: http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/en-US/AboutUs/AboutTheBook/FirstSevenChapters.htm


Life is a test:


How do we react we react to the negative view society has of us? How do we react when we lose the boy we love? How do we react when we have no one in our life and feel lonely? How do we react when tempted by lust? It is easy to see how life for a BL can be a big series of tests. Unfortunately, it's also easy to forget that passing these tests comes with a reward.


Life is a trust:


This is so important and on so many different levels. From a perspective really high up, we have to ask ourselves, how are as a society protecting the planet God has entrusted with? Are we using it wisely? Enjoying it while taking care of it? Or are we trashing the place as if it were ours to trash?

At a level below that, we can consider our own worldly possessions. How are you managing the wealth and resources God has entrusted you with? For some of us, this isn't a problem since he hasn't entrusted us with a whole lot. But for others, it is a big question. Are we using those things he has given us to bless others? A Christian couple once told me about how when they got their house, God made them aware that he had given that to them and so they needed to use it to bless others; thus they use their home for small group meetings and other church get-togethers.

Then we get down to a personal level. This is the one I personally like the most, the non-tangible blessings that God has given us. How are you utilizing those? God has entrusted you with a wonderful planet, incredible natural resources, and material things; the fact you are able to read this on the internet proves you are incredibly blessed materially even if you feel like you aren't. But more important than that, God has blessed you with many non-tangible things. These things can be things like: intelligence, wittiness, wisdom, social skills, an ability to teach (or to make complex things easy to understand), a solid understanding of mechanical processes, handiness with a hammer and power tools, athletic ability, the ability to make those who are suffering feel better, increased empathy or patience to deal with children, a knack for learning other languages, musical ability, creativity, business acumen, or even a love for animals. What are you doing with those non-tangible things God has blessed you with?


Where I stand personally:
On life as a test:

I'm not as good a test taker as I'd like. I have definitely mastered some of those tests. Societal values rarely bother me at all, for example. But keeping lust at bay sure is a tough challenge.


On life as a trust:
I am very good at being a good steward of the non-tangible gifts and talents God has given me. Perhaps that's why I put so much emphasis on that. I have done a good job of bringing my talents to bear in my work towards furthering the Kingdom of God. But when it comes to being a steward over my finances and material blessings, I pretty much suck at that. God has blessed me with material things and I'm afraid thus far I have let him down and used it all as if it were mine. This is an area I definitely need a lot of work on.

to participate actively in the book study, feel free to respond to this post or to any of the questions Cat or anyone else posts below. You don't necessarily need to respond to what is written on this post, you may prefer instead to talk about the parts of the chapter that spoke to you even if it wasn't something mentioned on this post. You may also pose your own discussion questions.