What Shapes Your Picture of the World?
A practical Christian study of “What Shapes Your Picture of the World?,” with clear application for faith, relationships, and everyday life.
Your World Picture
Play the original Excel Still More episode here without leaving the article.
The principle
All right, so as a great payback for all of the wonderful encouragement you passed my way this week, I would like to take the next 18 minutes and just agitate you. Yeah, I know that's not very kind, but I believe that some good purposed agitation, specifically as it relates to your world picture, could be very good for you and for me as well.
As these next few minutes unfold, there is a great quote I will be sharing with you from an author named Jeanette Winterson related to each of our world view or picture and how we react when things are introduced that don't fit in it, and a few things we all should start doing to make sure our picture is as good as we think it is.
The deeper lesson
Maybe you could say, I'm not an expert in those fields, so possibly there are things I don't even understand. Or how about maybe some of the people I trusted to tell me things from which I've reached conclusions, it's possible they were mistaken or had some kind of an agenda.
I'm not saying to abandon your view on things, I'm saying to temper it with a sense of humility and with an expectation that with more information and maybe even better information, I'm thinking about faith here and salvation and the church.
What it changes
It turns out there are really smart people out there who know more than me, and I've been able to grow to greater things when I was willing to explore beyond the boundaries of my own knowledge in those things. So let me give you a few things that I've been doing that have really helped, and I hope that you're willing to do it too, because the result of a better approach to this, the result of saying, hey, this is the way I see it right now, it may not be right, but it's the best I know how.
And following that with taking in new information, listening, if it's something you really do care about, well, in my life, in everything from doctrinal truths to hitting better chips and putts, my world picture was flawed.
Live it today
Again, if you're talking about what the Bible says in order to be saved, that is God's clear view, and I don't question that. But if you're talking about nearly everything else, even what can make my marriage better, or how I could handle my children differently, or what my work is in the church, or whether I should get that shot or not, I'm going to go into this going, you know, I'm probably wrong here because I only know what I know.
This allows me to listen, to learn, ask questions to learn, and then having added something new to my picture, decide if I'm going to redraw it.
Take the idea with you.
- 01Where do I see the problem or opportunity described in “What Shapes Your Picture of the World?” in my own life?
- 02What Scripture or spiritual principle in this study most needs my attention?
- 03What one specific change can I make this week to put this teaching into practice?
Prefer listening?
The original episode player is available near the top of this article, so you can listen without leaving the page.