Prepare ye the way...

So, to recall what I left on my own mind when I posted earlier this week, we were looking at three questions. Here goes...

Road Construction Ahead...

Is life more like a highway, or an urban grid, or a winding country road, or something else?

I don't know what that first question was driving at (it is going to be a pun-filled weekend, I fear), but I will subjectively interpret it and try to give an answer.

To see life as a highway would give the idea that the traveler is going in one direction. His choices would be off-ramps, where he can stay faithful to that direction or get off-course and exit the highway. I suppose other, lesser choices might be called lane-changes, where the driver keeps going forward, just in a slightly different track or at a different speed. Some of these may not be optional, as when a driver avoids a hazard in the road.
The urban grid seems to see life more more on a 2-dimensional field in which our choices take us here or there, running errands, meeting people, acting in many different activities, and not really getting anywhere in particular. The only progress would be made inside the vehicle- all the choices on where to go or what to do would be merely for the purpose of increasing the driver's own quality of life. this is beginning to sound kind of like what I once read about a certain Christian philosopher. He supposedly taught that the great choices swirling about us have no great meaning in themselves: rather, choice was exercised in the realm of absurdity, and the only true benefit was to be found in the chooser. As far as I got in understanding it, his was an interesting approach to whole perception/substance tree-in-the-forest discussion.
The country roads (take me home!) would, in my mind, represent the view that the way we travel upon is not always a clear matter. On the highway, we have signs warning us the choices we will have to make, and we know that, whatever happens, we need only stay on the highway and we are going in the right direction. The country road (take me... oh. sorry) may wind around hills and through forests to unmarked intersections and lonely wastes. Rather than marked out with signs and mile markers, the road is marked by ambiguity. There is not much information as to which way a driver should go, though some people seem to have a knack at traveling, they tend to pick the right path where others get lost for hours.

Soapbox, Anyone?
To answer the question, "How should we see life?" we should examine the next two questions.

What is the place of God's sovereignty in our choice-making?

I am becoming increasingly convinced that the biggest deficiency in much of the preaching and teaching that American Christians have heard is in the doctrine of God's sovereignty in all aspects of life. When approaching Scripture and how it hits practical life, why do we so often forget about what God is doing? Why do we approach decisions as free agents, entities with perfect ability to exercise their free choice? Why oh why are we so infatuated with "free will"?
Anyway, it seems like our paths may need to be understood in the light of the great God who controls all things according to the counsel of his will. The choices that are given us are directed by him. The end that we progress toward is determined by him. The rightness or wrongness of any decision is measured according to its proximity to his Person. God -the personal God who revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ and the Bible- is the great and ultimate reality. He alone allows for anything we are or do to have a purpose.
Now, when I am driving on this path, I find that the idea of a totally free cruise around the city grids seems not to jive with the fact that God is working all things together for good to those who love him. When I think about those mysterious country roads, I find that hard to set next to the fact that God has chosen to reveal himself to mankind. God has indwelt the believer, and provided him with a new heart. The Holy Spirit is seen actively guiding the believer into the good works which were foreordained for him. Therefore, the way is not a mysterious road without road signs, it is clearly marked out in the Bible.
I begin to wonder, though, if we really can exit the highway. Can a man choose to defy God Almighty and leave the path laid out for him? Or, was he locked into his life in its every detail from before time began? Is life like a car on a highway, or a train on its tracks? This is the difficulty of understanding how God's sovereign control of all things can be reconciled with man's responsibility for his actions. I will say that, as far as I can tell, the two will not be reconciled. However, that may not be a very important problem. It is true that God is sovereign, and evidently that extends over our choices. It is true that we are responsible for our actions, for how we use our choices. These two are not meant to be resolved, but rather trusted and acted upon, like any other truth taught in Scripture.

So... Logically... If she weighs the same as a duck...
So, when addressing the final question,

If we are not supposed to balance these competing values, how then are we to decide how to spend our time? Does it matter?

We find that our use of time does matter, because we are held responsible for it, but we may trust that, rather than balancing a good value against another good value, we are to trust God and follow him in whatever good thing he lays before us to do. As we follow, he evidently will continue to lead us from one thing to another, giving signs indicating where we are going. Inside the car, we will grow, outside the car, we will progress toward our destination. The burden of our choices is not ours alone. If God gives me two good options (say, study the word this afternoon or spend time with friends), I can trust him to guide me and just pick, so long as I use my choice to serve him in accordance to his Word. I can trust that I won't be getting off-track with him or getting myself lost in the wastes of life as long as I stay on the path he has lit by his Word.

Pencils Down.
So, we live. There are times in the LA fast lane, times in rush hour traffic, times alone on the Bonneville flats, and so on. God's taking us each on a trip. The scenery is worth seeing, but the destination is what is important. Now to him who is able to keep us from stumbling from here to the end...