103 A.M. 921 Felt. Blg. 4 (2011)
So burning the midnight oil on some Contracts reading somewhere between “The Elusive Purpose of Consideration Doctrine” and “Mutuality and Its Limits” I had a moment. I simply realized now how necessary giving up on the myth that I can do this myself has become. It is quite possible that law school was the test God put in my way to conclusively show me just how weak I actually am. I see now that trying to work on my own, with my own limitations, is not sufficient to accomplish the task laid out before me. Instead, it is only when I submit in my weakness, accept it and allow the Lord to work for his Glory that His purpose can be fulfilled. My purposes for law school are small and futile. I did come to law school for His Glory following what I believe to be His plan for my life, but up until this point I implicitly and covertly assumed I could succeed by my own means and in many respects my actions showed that those means led to my own end. I understand that ultimately in pursuing my own end I found it.
The end of myself (my self-made goals) has finally brought to assume God’s end for my life, his purpose, to pick up my cross and trust in him in a deeper and more powerful way. Moving forward is requires accepting your weakness and giving in to his sovereignty.
Consequently and counter intuitively, I now realize the task before me is too great and my purpose was too small. However, God’s purpose for me is far greater and in Him my problem is very small. It is in my weakness that God shows his strength.
I continue to learn this lesson daily. His glory will be manifested through the things that I could not otherwise even hope to accomplish on my own. His glory is in the impossible, and I find this comforting because I serve no small God with no small purpose. I intend to work harder only in that I may not be a hindrance to His purpose and that I may reside in accordance with His will. I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for Meghan and me, we look forward to growing closer to God in these times of trial understanding we are truly blessed beyond measure.
Our wonderful small group leaders at BBC, the Kauppila’s, reminded us of just how much dealing with life is a lot like passing through a downward spiral. In both you go round and round struggling with similar problems at different points in your life, but each time you encounter a problem it is at a deeper level. This time my encounter with this "self-insufficiency standard" has led to the deeper understanding of God's purpose in light of our weakness, and as every good law student knows sometimes Purpose is a pretty good argument to rely on. Life has taught me this lesson many times before, and I know it will many times again. I look forward to seeing God in a deeper way, and through all the daily trials grow closer to Him.
Law school is easy,
Danny
