I have a new book I really like recently titled Walking From East to West: God in the Shadows.  It’s an autobiography of Dr. Ravi Zacharias, who is a world-renowned Christian thinker and apologist.  I sat reading this book just this past summer under the uncomfortable heat and humidity of a 3-digit temperature, but finished it in only 2 days because it is a page-turner.  Ravi has a gift with words and the ability to use them in a way that generates wonder in the mind of his readers and listeners.  It was interesting to learn more about the culture of South Asia, particularly India, where Ravi was born and grew up in for the first 20 years of his life.  I learned about his personal childhood days, his family and how they shaped him into the person he is today, his arrival to the United States, his courtship with his now wife, etc.  However, in light of the book’s title, Ravi not only shares with us of his geographical journey “walking from East to West,” but also more importantly, of his spiritual journey: a journey out of the “City of Destruction” (the place we once were in prior to our conversion) and how God graciously placed him (and continues to keep him) on the path toward His “Celestial City.”

Prior to his conversion, Ravi’s life had been punctuated by one failure after another (especially in his studies), which often resulted to his being the object of his father’s wrath.  In fact, his father was so greatly disappointed in him that he declared Ravi’s life to be a complete failure early on.  Ravi also shares of his suicide attempt during the lowest points of his life–a tragic choice that very nearly brought him to an end.  After becoming a Christian, though, his life drastically and radically changed.  One day he was “a creature of despair, irresponsibility, and failure.”  Then he became a creature of hope, diligent and accomplished in the things to which he set his hand.  He discovered a lifelong passion and discipline of study.  It was indeed the work of God in Ravi’s life.  The following is one of my favorite quotes from the book:

Along with everyone else, I wondered how such a turnaround could have taken place, and so swiftly.  The key was that now I look at life through a window of meaning.  And that was the one thing I had been desperately longing for: meaning.  Now everything in my life was packed with it: my studies had a meaning, my family had a meaning, my friendships had meaning, my sports had meaning.

All the things I had thought were the causes of my despair–my failing studies, my senseless wandering, my hopelessness–had actually been the results of my despair.  The Austrian concentration camp survivor Viktor Frankl wrote, “Without meaning, nothing else matters.  With meaning, everything else falls into place.”  If you can’t see the why, you cannot live for the what.  And as soon as I was able to answer the “why,” even my failures began to make sense. (pp. 118-119)

The above quote rings so true for me because life becomes so meaningful and fulfilling when I realize God is the Reason for my life.  He is the answer to the why.  Perhaps that’s why Augustine himself wrote in his autobiography Confessions, “…for Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.”  As I look back through my life, I can remember that the times I was happiest and most content were when I placed God #1 in my life and when I passionately sought Him first as my ultimate Source of joy and help.  Everything else in life (including the mundane, the trivial, and the temporal) becomes meaningful and carries an eternal value because I do them in relation to God, His will, His purpose, or how they may glorify Him.  Even in something as simple as seeing the beautiful handiwork of creation such as the sunset or the clear blue sky, I can say, “Hey, I know the Master Artist and Creator of that!”  In reverse, those times when I felt unfulfilled and unhappy were when I stepped out of God’s will or when I had placed something else in priority over Him.

Lord, please grant me a sincere heart of repentance.  Please help me to always put You #1 in my life.  Help me so I may never again allow anything in this world to take up Your place in my heart and life.  Please mold me to become the kind of godly woman that You want me to be.  Help me to live every single hour of my life with You in mind, for Your purpose, and to Your glory.  You are the Reason for my life.  And You alone are sufficient. 

Some passages I need to continually meditate on and live out:

1. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)
2. “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14)
3. “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” (Colossians 3:23-24)
4. “The Lord is my light and my salvation;
   whom shall I fear?
   The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
   of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)

Posted: Thursday, September 21st, 2006 at 5:23 pm. Category: Books, Devotional Thoughts.
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