Soul Print: Discovering Your Divine Destiny-Scene 1

Scene 1: Holy Confidence
"If you learn the lesson God is trying to teach you, no matter how
things turn out, you have not failed. In fact, you cannot fail" (page
22). When I first read this, one of my first thoughts was how do you
know what lesson God is trying to teach you? This is one thing I
always think about and ask myself. I hear people saying "follow God's
will", "do what God asks you to do", etc. and I agree with that, we
should listen and obey God. But how do you know what He is telling
you? How do you know? I guess it's why I do not really like to say for
sure that this is "God's will" for me or that "God wants me to do
this…" because I just do not know. And also, it seems a
little…egotistic for lack of a better word to say I know what God is
thinking or what His plans are. But setting all that side, how am I
supposed to know what lesson God is trying to teach me? I wish someone
could tell me that. It's not like God speaks in a audible voice right?
How do you know the difference between what God is telling you and
what you think He is telling you? Another thing that just came to my
mind is this says learning God's lesson for you is the top thing. If
you learn that, if you achieve that, then you have not failed. Even if
you did not accomplish your goal, you still have not failed. Our
society is so driven by winning and achievieving this or accomplishing
that, that we often feel if we don't accomplish our goal, then we have
failed. For example, I have always been hesitant about asking people
for help. Coming here to China, I've had to get over that to a certain
extent. I ask my friends Lina, Gina or Raibo for help all the time.
Actually, a lot of the time. Maybe Gods lesson, or one of them, is
for me to lean that. To learn to ask people for help, and not just
until I have no other choice and am desperate. If that is God's lesson
for my time in China, then by learning it, have not failed. Sure, I
have not baptized anyone or given lots of bible studies or anything.
Doesn't mean I have failed.
"One key to fulfilling your destiny is recognizing what season you are
in" (page 24). The author in this chapter talks about seasons in our
lives, and how in order to fulfill your divine destiny, you have to
recognize what season you are in. if you don't, the author says, you
will experience frustration and maybe even anger and despair. I have
heard something similar to this all the time at ACU. Usually, about
singleness. The season of singleness. I have come to believe that for
me, it's not a season but a lifetime, but I do agree with the author
and I think he makes a good point here. Understanding what season you
are in is important. Maybe you are in a season where you are supposed
to wait. Maybe you are in a season where you are learning to be
confident in yourself and to ask people for help. If you recognize
that, then you won't experience as much frustration. "One of the
biggest mistakes we make is focusing all our energy on the next season
of life instead of enjoying the season we're in" (page 24). This is SO
true! We spend so much time focusing on the future, on what is coming,
that we tend to ignore the present. That is something that I always
struggle with. I am a planner; I like to have a plan. My plan can
change, I am flexible like that, but I have to have my plan. As a
planner, I think about things that are coming, that I have to do, and
I make a plan as to how to do them, what I have to do, etc. Of
course, this leads to the problem of I am always focusing on what is
to come, what is next, on future. Right now, I am in China, and I am
going home next month, and I have to do a lot of planning for that and
I have to save money for furniture and books and my trip to Chicago.
So I am trying to balance being here and planning for going home. I am
saving as much money as I can, but at the same time I am trying to not
give up traveling or eating at a restaurant that is price-y, simply to
save money. And I think that is what the author is saying. When we
are single, we long to be married. When we are married, we long to
have children…when we are high school students we long to go to
college, when we get to college we long for grad school, when we are
in grad school, we long for a doctorate, etc. we always look to the
season that is ahead. I want to change that. I want to start enjoying
and living in the season I am in, yet always think about the season
that is coming.
"Your current frustration will be cause for future celebration if you
hang in there long enough" (page 25). This caught my eye because it is
something that I think to myself every once in a while, especially
since I've been in China. Sometimes, it is worth it for things to go
wrong because when they are finally fixed, you appreciate it so much
more. I did not have hot water in my apartment for the first month or
so that I was in China. It was miserable and frustrating and
worrisome. Yet when they finally fixed it-around October- it was so
great! I was so excited and so relieved and even now, every time I
take a nice hot shower, and I feel lucky and so glad to have hot
water. So it almost makes it worth it because I appreciate it so much
more.
"We so quickly forget the central fact of our faith: without a
crucifixion there is no resurrection"(page 26). In this section, the
author talks about divine delays. Sometimes what seems to us to be a
disadvantage, a disappointment, is really a divine delay. God has
something planned for us, but not yet, or maybe He has to stop a plan
or a dream of ours in order to give is His plan, His dream. What I
liked about this quote is that it is saying that in order for the
resurrection to have happened, Jesus needed to have died by
crucifixion. Before dawn, there is darkness. Sometimes, in order for
something good and beautiful to happen, something sad and painful has
to happen first.
What I got out of this book so far is how our disadvantages can be
advantages. I am doing an exercise based on this idea. I made a
chapter and I wrote on one column all my disadvantages, weaknesses,
etc. and on the other column I wrote the good that came out of it. I
also have made a second chart, with the same idea but instead of
disadvantages I listed decisions I made on a whim. It's not really
hard, but it does take some thought, and there are still a few
disadvantages that I cannot think of what good has come out of them.
still, I like this exercise and it makes me feel…good. Sort of like a
few puzzle pieces of the puzzle that is me have come together you
know?

Soul Print: Discovering your Divine Destiny-Opening

Soul Print: Discovering your Divine Destiny

             by Mark Batterson

 

              "You are unlike anyone who has ever lived. But that uniqueness isn't a virtue. It's a responsibility" (page 9). This jumped out at me in the first part of this book. We have all heard a thousand times that we are unique, that we are special in our own way, etc. it's such a common thing for us to hear it is almost a cliché. Yet I feel as if this is a unique point being made here. Ok, we know we are unique, we are special. No one else on earth is like us. But what we have not heard is that it's a responsibility. Like when you get your license. It's great and exciting, yet it is also a responsibility, a responsibility to take care of the car we are driving, of the people in the car, and to be careful drivers in general.  As Christians, we believe God created us. So if God created us, then our uniqueness, who we are, etc, as this book says, it's a responsibility on us to live up to that, to be the unique person we were meant to be.  We hear that "you are beautiful your own way; everyone is beautiful in their own way." We hear this said all the time. again, it is almost a cliché. Yet maybe it is not true. After all, I am sure that if you look long enough, you can find someone that looks similar to me. you can find someone that is beautiful in the same way, because of the same features, etc. as me. maybe though, that does not matter. Maybe our uniqueness, that uniqueness which no one else has or will ever have or has ever had, is our soul. Not our personality. After all, there are people who have a personality similar to yours, just like there are people who have the same kind of beauty as you. Maybe our true uniqueness is from our soul. Our soul print. And that is what this book is talking about.  But back to the responsibility. God created you, He created me, etc. and that means our soul, is a unique custom made one of a kind soul. Not your looks, not your personality, but your soul. The soul God created, and whom He set about specific mission(s) to accomplish on Earth. And because of that, it would be a shame and a letting down of God and disrespect, for us to ignore our custom made souls, and instead be a carbon copy of society, of someone else. Would you rather be a custom made soul by God, or would you rather be a carbon copy of someone else?

"You were created to worship God in a way that no one else can. How? By living a life no one else can-your life" (page 9).  I did not grow up going to church. At all. Not even on Christmas or Easter. So even though I've been going to church since sophomore year of college and have been  a Christian since  Sophomore year of college, in a lot of ways this church going thing is still new to me. and when I think of worship, I think of church. So this line really got my attention. The idea it suggests: that worship to God is your life, the way you live. Not the singing, the sermons, the Sunday church ritual, etc. maybe that is what we think of worship to be. Maybe it's a small part of worship, and we have turned it into the whole thing. What if your life is the worship? The theme of this book is finding your soul print, the person God created you to be, from the beginning when He created you.  If we find our soul print, then we can become the unique, custom made soul which God created, and it follows that are live will be as unique the too, since no one else has our soul print and never will and never did. So if we think of worship as being the life we live, then we each have our own unique way to worship God, according to our soul print and the life our soul print leads us to live. Think of that! that makes me kind of excited. the idea that I can workship God in a way no one else has ever has before and never will, and I can do this by being the person He created me to be, by finding and living my soul print.

"It's never too late to be who you might have been"(page 10). I really like this sentence. In our society, a lot of things are easily missed due to the pace of our modern lifestyle. And due to this same past faced lifestyle, we often feel it is too late for a lot of things. it is too late to go to grad school, you already have a successful career. It is too late to get married. It is too late to tell the girl you liked that you liked her. you get the idea. Yet, this sentence reminds me that being who I was meant to me, changing into that person, into that girl, changing my life to be the life it was meant to be…it is never too late for that.

"If you haven't discovered your unique gifts and passions, how can you find fulfillment in what you do? You might make a living, but you won't make a life" (page 10).  I do not have much to say about why I like this. It's pretty self-explanatory what it is saying and why I like it. I like it because it talks about making a living and making a life as two different things. We often think of them as the same thing.

"we are, most of us, much of the time, in disguise. We present ourselves as we think we are meant to be"(page 11).  " and the primary reason we live as strangers to ourselves is because we're afraid of what we'll find if we start digging. We don't really want to see ourselves for who we are. But if we can dig deeper than our fallen natures, we'll find the truth that lies buried beneath our sin: the image of God. we'll find our true identities  and our true destinies as well"(page 11).   These are two separate quotes as you can tell. I really liked what he is saying here. When we think of not being true ourselves, our culture oftentimes blames…itself. I say that because we blame society, our culture, the media, celebrities, etc. but what if we are to blame for not being ourselves? What if the main reason we are afraid to find out and/or be who we really are is us. Me. you.  We stop ourselves from it because we are afraid to discover that who we really are could be someone we don't want to be. For example, I would be so…no happy if part of who God created me to be, my soul print, was to live among poor people in the slums of India. So it's easier to go with who we think we are supposed to be, or who people think we are. It takes courage and dedication to find our true identities, our soul print. But maybe the first step is stopping ourselves from stopping us from being who we are. The idea that I am in disguise is not a happy one for one. In January, I found out something about one of my friends, concerning…his lifestyle, for lack of a better phrase. Something about him. And even now, in May, I still find myself feeling like….like I was lied to in a way. Like this whole time he was…wearing a mask. A mask similar to who he really is, but with a critical piece left out. I find myself wondering if I ever really knew him, or what else he could be hiding. I know that it's not true, that he is who ive known him to be, but still, the feelings remain, and to be honest, a little bit of the trust is gone. i feel as if I will always wonder what else he could be hiding. I don't want to feel that way about mysef. Not being able to trust myself to be who I really am, to feel as if I am wearing a disguise, as mask. Masks are fun to wear on Halloween, as are disguises. But they are hard to wear every single day, all day.

The following are quotes  I really liked. Nothing much to say about them, so I'll just list them:

1.       "time may be measured in minutes, but life is measured in moments"(page 11).

2.       "you never know which moment might become a defining moment"(page 11).