I OPEN today’s comment with two questions:
FIRST, I’m wondering if my readers are familiar with Nathaniel Hawthrone’s Great Stone Face, mentioned in the previous comment? If not, here is a link to this great story for your reading enjoyment and edification: http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/139/
SECOND, and more to the point for today’s consideration: Do you ever feel disoriented, confused, not quite sure where you are, where you are going or have been? This happens a lot when we’re young, having not quite found your way in life; and it can also happen as we get older, as we begin to lose our memory and our faculties start to slip away. At least that’s what I’m told, having observed this in seniors, and, well… I have to admit, I am starting to experience this now in myself as well. But there are other times when we become disoriented from losing our bearings or sense of direction.
FOR example, Southern California Edison built many generating stations up and down the coast of California, and some inland stations throughout its service region as well. In my 30 years with Edison, I was privileged to work in many of these plants. Several of them where contracted and constructed at the same time in different regional locations, and as a result are mirror images in design and appearance. One such case is Alamitos Generating Station Units 3&4 located near the ocean waters of the coast and Etiwanda Units 3&4 located inland near Fontana, CA. These units are carbon copies of one another, except for one thing. When built, the Alamitos units were constructed facing north, and the Etiwanda units facing south. I spent most of my early Edison career working at Alamitos, working 24/7 rotating shifts which included many graveyard/night shifts. Then on one occasion I took a brief assignment at Etiwanda, which was a fairly easy task since I knew how to operate those identical units without going through the usually required initial operator orientation and training. I will never forget however, one particular morning of disorientation.
GRAVEYARD shift does strange things to a person’s body and mind, and we often do things through habit and mindless routine. This particular morning, late into the shift, meaning the time when one is the sleepiest just before dawn (that’s the most difficult time of the graveyard shift), an alarm annunciated on the boiler alarm panel, requiring someone to get in the elevator, ascend, inspect, and determine the cause of the alarm on the top of the boiler; that someone was me. By routine, I got in the elevator, pushed the top deck button, ascended, and as I reached the top and the door opened, I stepped out and I looked out into my surroundings. For a moment I became completed disoriented and confused. Where was I, what was I doing, what time is it? Is it morning or evening? …You see, for a moment I thought I was at Alamitos. The early morning rising sun should have been on my right, not my left; the electric switchyard hundreds of feet below had moved too, the “familiar” city lights on the horizon were not on………. Well, of course they were not on – they were not there! What was there were grape fields and agricultural land that surround Etiwanda, not Alamitos! For a moment I felt completely disconnected as the door to the elevator closed behind me. Standing there on the open steel grating, alone in the gray morning light atop that wind-blown boiler, not knowing where I was or what I was doing, I experienced a very real moment of dizzying disorientation. As I rehearse it here in my thoughts, it is as if I were standing there now. …Holding on to the handrail, my thinking somewhat fogged, I slowly turn my head to survey my surroundings and saw the lights on Unit 1&2 that are distinct to Etiwanda and completely different compared to Alamitos 1&2, and I woke up to where I was, laughing to myself… mumbling boy, was that weird or what?
WHENEVER I come to Rom. 8:29, being reminded of the importance of being rightly oriented to God’s purposes in my life, what it is He is doing, and all that He does to bring us into conformity to his Son, our Savior, I think of that incident, that gray morning atop Etiwanda 3&4. I recall the dizzy, sickening, and frightful feeling of not knowing what was going on around me, what I was doing or why. I also recall the comfort and joy that followed when the reality was restored.
I HAVE frequently commented here that this chapter we’ve been reviewing the past several postings regarding Purpose is a very important consideration. Knowing God’s purpose as a Principle of Spiritual Growth is critical to our orientation and understanding of God’s purposed and objective end, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col 1:27).
THE following is our last installment on this important section and doctrine, picking right up where we left off in our reading.
In the wondrous blessings of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa. 30:15 & Job 2:10
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Chapter 4—Purpose – Part 5, conclusion
………Just behold Him, look upon Him through the Word. Come to the Word for one purpose and that is to meet the Lord. Not to get your mind crammed full of things about the sacred Word, but come to it to meet the Lord. Make it to be a medium, not of Biblical scholarship, but of fellowship with Christ. Behold the Lord.”
Thou sayest, “Fit me, fashion me for Thee.”
Stretch forth thine empty hands, and be thou still:
O restless soul, thou dost but hinder Me
By valiant purpose and by steadfast will.
Behold the summer flowers beneath the sun,
In stillness his great glory they behold;
And sweetly thus his mighty work is done,
And resting in his gladness they unfold.
So are the sweetness and the joy Divine
Thine, O beloved, and the work is Mine.
—Ter Steegen
“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). And what is His “good pleasure” He is performing in us? He is working everything together for this one purpose: “That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” (II Cor. 4:11). This is life: “For to me to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). This is service: “And there were certain Greeks … saying, Sir, we would see Jesus” (John 12:20, 21).
