What's in Your Worldview?

Perspective

Your worldview matters.  It shapes how you approach everyday life and the plethora of challenges that always seem to be hidden around every corner just out of sight.  Your worldview can steer you to hope or destroy you with fear.  So today I'm going to pose the question, "What's in your worldview?"

Also going to tackle my weekly class wrap-up and roll out a new graphic for my BE101 statistics!  Hard to believe that I've already put 20% of this course in my rearview mirror.  Some very interesting numbers are emerging which are testing some of my original hypotheses.

Worldview Matters

I recently fell ill with a terrible sickness that has been unrelenting for the better part of the last three months.  Well, it turns out it's a little more than just an illness.  I'm really really sick.  So what now?

To be honest, I'm not a happy camper at the moment.  But I live with the worldview that says God is sovereign.  Everything I'm going through is happening exactly as He planned before He even laid the foundation of this world.  As such, I can be confident that this is also for my own good.  Just another thread that is woven into the rich tapestry of God's perfect plan and will.

This is a consistent worldview that is based on God's grace alone.  After all, what is poor health in comparison to the knowledge that it is only by God's grace and mercy that He allows any of us to even take another breath?  I have the sovereignty of God to place my trust through faith.  I may not understand God's immediate plan for my life through my circumstances, but I can rest assured it is settled.

But what happens when you shift your worldview to man-centered perspective?  Where do you find answers?  Where do you find your hope?  Most importantly, where is your appeal for grace?  If I hold a man-centered worldview, then I am responsible for my well being and future.  If I lose control of that, where does that leave me?  Rationalization.

If I can find favor with God through my actions, then I can also lose favor with God through my actions.  Therefore, if things go wrong in my life, then I must be partially responsible for that.  The error in this rational is that there is anything I could do in the first place to earn God's favor.  I never did earn, or ever will earn, any favor with God.  I did earn His judgment, though.  I deserve nothing and no amount of rationalization will balance that equation before the righteous judge.

Knowing this, I accept the trials of life as more than I rightfully deserve.  I'd rather throw myself upon the mercy of God through faith than ever think there was anything that I could do to earn merit with a holy God.  And this is what the Bible teaches.  By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.  In faith, it's easier to lean on God than it would be to lean on myself.  Especially when my circumstances are outside of my control.

Worldview matters.  I can't change what God has ordained and only a fool would assume otherwise.  It's therefore, my hope that God will use this trial in my life to grow my faith and bring glory to His name.  Not because I did anything to warrant his wrath, but because I didn't do anything to warrant his grace.  The grace of God that sustains me from one day to the next.

The Week in Review

Not a heck of a lot happening this week on the class front.  Really just digging in to finish the third learning activity.  I've put a solid 10 hours into the assignment thus far and I think I'm just about done but I'm going to hang onto it for at least one more day to cross my i's and dot my t's.

Ten hours may sound like a lot of time but it really isn't.  Once again, I probably spent about half that time studying and learning English grammar.  I mentioned in Just Keep Swimming that I found a new grammar tool for my toolbox which really helped me a lot with my verbs again.

Overall, I'm really enjoying all the studying and learning and I've found the learning assignments to be downright fun.  Weird.

Lessons Learned and Best Practices

I can not overstate the importance of developing a strategy for collecting thoughts and ideas.  Xmind has always been a go-to tool for me at work and at home, but it has revolutionized my ability to study.  I've saved hours by having the ability to lay out and organize my thoughts for these assignments.

Xmind.  Get it.  Learn it.  Love it.

BE101 Statistics 

Alright, I've been tinkering with a new layout for my BE101 statistics.  I'm not sure this will be the final version, but I figured I'd put this out there for today's post.  Tell me what you think.  I used Canva as a base image and then overlaid some Excel charts.  I might have more to say about Canva soon, we'll see.