God's Purpose

During my quiet times in the last 3-4 months, I've been looking at God's character and qualities that would help me get to know Him better rather than just understand Him more. While I seek the understanding, I really felt that the Holy Spirit was working in me to get to know Jesus better, and that comes by know the qualities of His character and how that is played out in my own life.

In reading half of Genesis [started with Jacob's fleeing from Esau] and starting in Exodus, the large portion of what I read so far is the life of Joseph and his brothers. And I kept asking myself, "What is it about God that is revealing to me?" Because in the story of Joseph, God's literal voice is absent - He doesn't actually say anything for chapters. But in the midst of Joseph's life, where his brothers' jealousy leads to their selling him, being in jail for 12 years, and reaching to the height of Pharaoh's kingdom only to be confronted by his family again, I wondered what qualities of God I was suppose to get.

As I thought more about it, the Holy Spirit led me to an important quality of God's. It is that God's purpose is perfect and bigger than anything we could have planned for. I think what I used to take away from Joseph's story is that if you are faithful in God during times of trials and act appropriately, God will make things better. And I still think there is a lot of truth in that. But this time around, I think I see that God has a purpose, and His purpose is only known to Him. And just as important, His purpose is redemptive. The story of Joseph is a redeeming one, where only God could know his purpose over a 12-20 year span. Despite Joseph's jealous brothers, God redeemed the story at the end with reconciliation and blessings.

God's purpose is bigger than us. It is bigger than the moment in which we live. I was talking to the wife and I don't think our purpose is to know fully God's purpose. That would, for all intents and purpose, make us God. God reveals His purpose to us when we need it and in the way we need it. But we always have to be ready and willing to submit to His plans. Because whatever season we are living right now, God's purpose is bigger than that - and if we don't believe that, then we're not seeing closely God's character. There is a story within each of us, and our stories are meant to be part of God's purpose, especially in its redemptive nature. God's redemptive purpose for Joseph was for him to be the head of Pharaoh's kingdom - but that couldn't have happened unless he was imprisoned and interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh's. Our stories are not unlike Joseph's. We too, have gone through ups and downs. But God's purpose is big. His purpose is perfect. And it is one of God's qualities that make Him uniquely God - that He is all knowing, and that His plans need no help from us from coming to fruition.

There Will Be Blood

We watched the movie "There Will Be Blood" this weekend. I watched to see Daniel Day Lewis' Oscar performance and I have to say, I'm confused. I thought the acting was tremendous. Daniel Day Lewis fully immersed himself to be a man whose character, Daniel Plainview, is anything but in plain view.

The story is simple enough. Plainview is an oil man who leases land in California to drill and ends up in an agreement with Union Oil to build an oil line to the Pacific Ocean. But in the middle, I was caught up with Plainview's character. A man who seeming is driven by greed and shuns people as a way to be isolated from love and community. We never see Plainview speak of love or women, just associates who come in and out of his life. The one person he does love is his son, H.W., who he adopts after one of his workers die in a drilling accident. But after a freak accident in which H.W. loses his hearing, Plainview cannot reconcile the love he has for his little boy to a frustrating and often hurting soul that cannot heal his impairment. His nemesis in the movie are not other business associates, but a young man who claims to be a church healer, a person whose hubris in being the minister of the church leads him and Plainview to be at odds over who runs the town. Is it the healer, who's congregation is blinded by his over zealous messages of faith healing, who the people turn to? Or is it the oil man who is giving them money as he makes millions off as he dries up their fields of natural resources?

I can't decide if I really like this movie or if I just like it. The story ends abruptly [I won't give it away here] and we were left with going to the computer to see what it was about. I told the wife the part of me that's having a hard time reconciling with this movie is the idea of redemption is missing for me. Normally, a story has a character who goes through a redemptive process that makes us want to relate to him/her. Here, I just couldn't relate to Plainview. Or, I didn't want to.

For those who've seen it, give me your thoughts. It'll help me sort through some questions I have about the movie.