Point to Ponder: I was planned for God's pleasure

Verse to Remember: Psalm 149a (TEV)

Question to Consider: What common task could I start doing as if I were doing it directly for Jesus?

Unless you read the book it's kind of hard to see how he made the leap to that question. His main point? I was planned for God's pleasure. According to Warren, God gave me my 5 senses so that I could experience pleasure and the reason he wants me to be able to experience pleasure is because I'm made in His image and He experiences pleasure.

So how can I please God? Given Bipolar Girl's checkered and plaid past... it's hard to think that I ever please God. My suicidal thoughts all those years couldn't have pleased him. My rageful temper can't be on the top ten list of things that please God. My addiction to porn didn't make that list either. When I do nice stuff I generally have an ulterior motive so even the good stuff I do is questionable. According to my criteria I'm screwed. If I look at it my way God would surely have to hate me.

Retraining myself to think the purpose driven way is going to take some effort. Warren points out that pleasing God is called "worship." Oh. I can do that. I love to sing and I have been trying to learn how to play my guitar for the last 12 years. I was a missionary... so that must have given him atleast a smile. I sang a lot whenI was a missionary too. Brownie points? Only if I opened my mind up to get Warren's next point: worship is more than music it's a way of thinking and a way of life. Anything I do, if I do it with a heart leaning towards God is worship. When I go into my classroom and I'm consciously teaching to please him, THAT's worship. When I go in there all cranked out thinking about how everything is getting ME down and how my kids are getting on MY nerves and how I'M not cut out for teaching... then my heart is not on God and my job is just a job that day.

SO what common task can I start doing as if I were doing it directly for Jesus? I know this might sound dumb... but eating. I've managed to eat myself into health problems because I eat when I stressed, bored, depressed, sad... any time but when I'm actually hungry. I've made some really positive changes this week and I can live with them. Jesus said, "Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that falls from the mouth of God." I've let food control me for far too long. I obey my cravings with a committment that I only wish I had all the time for God. I hate that WWJD slogan. What would Jesus do? It doesn't always apply. In this situation Jesus might just fast for another 40 days for all I know. In some instances, like this one... a better question might be: What would Jesus have ME do? I think he's already spoken to me through my doctors. They both say I need to make changes. So Lord willing... I will continue to make healthier choices when I shop and when I cook. Cooking as if I were cooking for Jesus himself? Something tells me that I wouldn't serve him up a plate of greasy fries and some blue cheese dressing and say, "Eat up." That was my dinner three nights out of four a few weeks ago. That's never going to happen again.