Where does one start?

My biggest (that I can think of right now) weakness is in thinking about the big picture and preparing for things with it in mind. Meaning, I rarely think about the big picture. 

Examples:

My yard has a crapload of weeds in it because I wasn't thinking about the big picture when the time came for me to do some weed prevention before the spring.

I can't play guitar, although I've tried to learn more than a few times. I always assume that I'll suck at something forever if I don't start with it mastered, which leads me to quit. (see programming, website design, hip hop production, making shoes, woodworking, etc...)

I have, however, been honing the skill over the past two or three years out of necessity. As a teacher, I have to have the big picture in mind as I prepare lessons for my classes. There is a ten question test over each unit that I teach. I don't write the test, but I have to give the test to all of my classes. I've been told that I have to use this test to "backwards design" my lesson plans for an entire unit. Let me describe this another way: I plan over a month's worth of curriculum by looking at ten questions they will have to answer on one day at the end of the unit. I think a lot of people would read that and be taken aback by how terrible that sounds. All we teachers ever do is teach to the test, right? 

Right. And it's the greatest thing ever.

Why? 

My students' mathematical growth and mastery is based on the results of a test. It always has been and it always will be. That doesn't seem to be changing any time soon. As long as that's the case, I'll continue to plan with the end goal in mind. It's the nuance associated with this process that allows me to sleep at night, though. 

I tell every kid at the beginning of the year that they are NOT a test score to me. They will have a test score associated with them, but that is not their defining characteristic in my mind. I keep that in mind throughout the year as I work with kids. 

All that to say:

I was reading Ephesians this morning in preparation for college Bible study and I started thinking about the end goal affecting the beginning of a process.

verse 16-18 in chapter 2 says...

16 and [Jesus] might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.17 ANDHE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR;18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household,

The end goal, like the ten question test, of this "Jesus Process" is to be reconciled, or returned to compatibility, with God. That's it. We exist to return to harmony with God.

If you aren't in a place where you want that, then you might experience some difficulty in the pursuit of Jesus.

I think, before somone can make the decision to follow God, they need to look into what it means to be reconciled to him, or to be returned to compatibility with him. If that's something they want, then they ought to pursue Jesus because that's what he provides.

There are questions for the interested parties to ask of themselves, though.

Do I want to be reconciled to God?

What has made me un-reconciled?

Do I see the need for reconciliation?

Is God worth being reconciled to him?

Is reconciliation worth the lifestyle implications that go along with it?

Am I willing to believe that Christ is the only way to obtain this reconciliation?

There are more questions, but I don't have them floating around in my head.

Thanks, my job, for helping with this insight.

Rather, thank you Lord, for giving me a job that would help me with this insight.