This post is part of our "Purpose Driven Life" book study, the first official Christian Boylove Forum book study. If you would like to join in, do not be discouraged by the thought that it's too late. The book is designed to be read one chapter per day but we only study one chapter every Monday and Thursday in this forum, so if you read it at the book's recommended pace, you will catch up with us very quickly. 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 while you look for the book in your local bookstores or wait for it to arrive from online.

Making God smile

I remember a time when, as a young BL, I felt like God could not possibly love or care for someone like me. I felt like my very life was not only a disappointment to God, but was something he despised. I wasn't living a life of sin, I wasn't having sex with anyone (let alone boys), I wasn't doing anything wrong outwardly but yet I still felt like the fact I was a BL made me an abomination, something God despised. It took time for me to realize how wrong this point of view was. Like Rick Warren says in this chapter, not only does God love us but he delights in seeing us happy. The idea that God would hate us because of the specific temptations we face was nothing but a lie meant to keep me down. The fact is that God is far less concerned with what I am tempted by than with what I do about it. God made me who I am, weaknesses and all, and he is proud of his creation; we can make him proud, we can make him smile. We don't have to be some other person in order to make God happy, we can make God smile by being who we are.

Rick Warren says: You don't bring glory to God by hiding your abilities or by trying to be someone else. You only bring him enjoyment by being you. I think he is right. A lot of times we can be led to believe that we need to live a pretend life where we ignore the fact that God made us a BL and pretend to be something we are not. But such a life would be a life of lies and a rejection of who God made you to be. That's not to say that we should give in to all of our temptations since God created us to have them. It's not an acceptance of sin that God wants from us. But I believe that if we are true to ourselves, facing temptations will be easier than if our life is built on lies.

Do you agree? Disagree? Indifferent?


to participate actively in the book study, feel free to respond to this post or to any of the discussion 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.