Thursday, September 9, 2010

Who's program?

“You just on your own program?” everyone knew what was next...lots of pushups.  Someone had, once again, gone against, (more likely than not ignorantly) Senior Chief's will.  Over the first week of ODS we quickly became aware of the need to understand and comply with Senior Chief's "program".  The ingenuity of the "program" was that not knowing the "program" and consequently suffering the consequences of going outside the "program"...was all part of the "program".  Senior Chief was teaching us to three important lessons:
1. The importance of being on the same page
2.  How to read and operate on that page effectively with limited information
2. That the page was more important than our individual wants and desires.

During the many "You on your own program?" inspired pushup sessions I thought about how that idea translates to my walk with Christ.   The great men and women of the Bible were not on their own program.  They followed God the Father's plan for their lives and the end result was something so much more than what their "program" would have been.  Yet for none of them, Jesus included, were the dots always clearly connected.  They did not get a brochure with a ten step process and happy ending promised. There wasn't a clear map. They did not have all the information available upfront...they had to trust.  They had to realize that their life was not their own, that they were part of something bigger and if they would just trust - learning to operate and obey the information they had been given, all the while seeking more and more clarification - their life would matter, they would be part of "The Program"...even if that would not be comprehensively clear except from the vantage point of heaven.



I don't want to be on my own program.  I want to be part of the "The Program".