When teaching visual arts to my high school students, I have noticed a rookie trend which I try to help them see in order for them to progress in their artistic skill. When students begin to draw their compositions are typically flat without much depth. Once I show them how they can better represent three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional page by using cues like perspective, position, size, overlap, color, and value it makes their creation more engaging by inviting the viewer into the image. The same is true in life. By adding depth to your perception of relationships, experiences, and purpose you will benefit more from each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Life is made of relationships. First with God, then with others. Relating to God is more than a set of external religious practices. It’s also more than knowing about <\/em>him. It’s actually knowing him\u2014being with him, becoming like him, and doing what he does (John 17:3; Matthew 5-7; 1 Peter 1:13-16, 2:9). Having a personal, saving relationship with God through faith in Jesus opens your eyes to deeper insights that people who don’t know God lack. In fact, the Bible teaches that revering God is the beginning of wisdom. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding” (Proverbs 9:10. See also Psalm 111:10). This is because recognizing and appreciating that God is supremely kind and good changes your outlook, values, and actions (Romans 2:4). His goodness is shown in his unconditional love, faithfulness, patience, mercy, truthfulness, and sacrificial providence toward you. Jesus, God the Son, died and rose again to save you from your prideful tendency to center on yourself. Even now he is continually working for your best interest. Let the magnificence of God transform you from the inside out. Let him save you from being self-centered and redirect you to a deeper, richer life of glorifying him and serving others. Seek the righteousness of God for this world and for people’s lives (Matthew 6:33, 22:36-40). Ask for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:9-10). View people for more then they appear (1 Samuel 16:7). Value them for who they are as God’s beloved creation and not for what you can get from them. As you daily relate to God more intimately, he will overflow through you to love and serve others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While growing in your relationships with God and people, dig deeper to learn from your interactions with them. God sent his son, Jesus, to show you and enable you to live abundantly. Humbly follow his example\u2014his manner, message, mission, and method. Learn from other people also, even the ones who are difficult to get along with. Rely on God. He manifests his power amidst your weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Admit your shortcomings. Confess your sin. Receive his forgiveness (1 John 1:9). Redeem good from mistakes. Put others’ interests before your own (Philippians 2:3-4). Get comfortable being uncomfortable living as salt and light for a dying and dark world (Matthew 5:13-16; Philippians 2:12-16). Endure hardship for it produces a harvest of righteousness, peace, and holiness (Hebrews 12:7-14). Embrace suffering with hope. Trials develop perseverance which in turn mature and complete you (James 1:2-4; Romans 5:3-5). Ask God not just to deliver you from them, but to teach you through them. Remember God always has your back. May his joy be your strength and salvation (Nehemiah 8:10). May his mighty arm protect and provide for you. Nothing can separate you from his love (Romans 8:31-39). Adopt an eternal perspective knowing that living to share God’s truth, love, and salvation is worth it for what it does to transform you into the likeness of Jesus and for what it does to help others come to know God as their savior. “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor 4:16-18. See also Romans 8:18). So remain in and draw your life from Jesus as a branch in the vine. There is no other way to bear fruit, to accomplish anything of lasting value, and to become all you were designed to be (John 15:1-17).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the vine analogy where Jesus teaches that he is the vine of life and anyone who trusts and obeys him is a branch, he states that he chooses anyone who follows him and appoints them to bear fruit. Once again the need to delve deeper arises. This time regarding purpose. You are meant from more than to just be a “good” person or to just “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die.” God has a plan for your life as you join his glorious mission of saving others, restoring all of creation, and reigning. God is calling you to be a minister of reconciliation like Jesus is (2 Corinthians 5:11-21; John 20:21). He wants to work through you to reach others and adopt them into his royal family. Approach your days and your decisions with that perspective. Think beyond benefitting only yourself and beyond gratification of the immediate. Reflect on what you think and how you act. Here are five questions adapted from pastor and author, Andy Stanley which can help:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Be intentional about growing in God and sharing him with others. Jesus instructs those who follow him to go and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). There is no greater purpose or adventure than to joyfully let God work in you and through you to lovingly invest in others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Delve deeper with God and let him expound on your relationships, experiences, and purpose. He is a masterful painter, weaver, and sculptor. Let him brush greater meaning into your life, interlace lines of understanding into your tapestry of experience, and mold you into all he designed you to be. Follow Jesus and you will operate from his eternal perspective, awesome power, and amazing love to get more out of life on earth and to put more into it. Then when he returns to consummate his kingdom, you will be prepared for an even greater, broader, deeper, and more blessed life with him and other believers throughout eternity.<\/p>\n\n\n\nDeeper Experiences<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Deeper Purpose<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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