Putting Boots on Our Predestination

Recently, in a class I took on leadership by Terry Walling, we were encouraged to look at our lives and heritage more carefully using a Post-It Note Timeline to consider all the events, circumstances, and people the Lord has used to shape us.  Dr. Walling had us identify how God, as the Potter, uses many influences to form us into the people we are. He led us through exercises that helped us recognize the people God has used to mold us thus far. 

As we prayerfully reflected on our lives with Dr. Walling's guidance, we began to see that the Lord uses many people in lesser and more significant ways to prepare and direct us in our service to Him.  Indeed, as we become more aware of God's shaping hand through others, we begin to see lessons and patterns the Lord uses uniquely in our own lives to guide us further into His ways. 

For example, in my own life, I saw God often using "spanks" through the hands of others to shape me. One of my very first memories is crying as a toddler after my father had truly spanked me (with many repeats throughout my childhood!), which helped put the fear of God in my heart. An arrest in high school after doing something stupid with friends taught me a new respect for authority. A near failure in a mathematics theory class in graduate school from the department chairman redirected my career toward teaching. A pastoral mentor who, in my early years, told me after every sermon I preached that I was too fast and too quiet for people to hear shaped my preaching. The list could go on.  I know the Lord loves me, for He has faithfully disciplined me (Hebrews 12:4-11)!  Furthermore, I saw more fully through reflecting on these circumstances and the people God has used in my life how, in turn, He has called me to correct and shape others in loving, relational discipleship. 

Ephesians 2:10 says that "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). Rather than viewing predestination only as pertaining to a salvation event or, far worse yet, some dry and dusty doctrine, we put boots on our election when we more clearly see the Lord's guiding and shaping hands on the whole of our lives. Going through this exercise helped me to experience more deeply how God has directed my life so that I will walk more knowledgeably in the works He has prepared for me. 

I'm using this timeline in a class I teach to help men preparing for church leadership reflect on their unique calling. They are having serious fun as they do so.  If interested, you can watch this video here where one person explains how to do the timeline. Note, however, that this exercise is best done in a group so you can discuss it with others.