Does the Bible contain a blueprint for your life?

It’s a fair question — especially among Christians who want to live a life in alignment with the heart and will of God.

But does the Bible really hold a prescriptive way of living life — a specific model or blueprint for the “with God life” — that we could follow according to all of the specs and ultimately experience the best possible life for us?

What do you think?

If you answer “yes” to this question, then my follow-up question would be this:

Whose life fits the specific model?

And before you jump to the obvious answer of Jesus, let’s remember that he was rejected, tortured, and killed — as a part of his model. And is that really what God has created all of us for?

As you continue to think through your list of biblical characters for another possible answer, let me ask this:

Is it possible that God has a plan for us and our lives that can be found within the pages of the Bible, but instead of it being prescriptive it’s actually descriptive?

What I mean by this is — is it possible that instead of prescribing for us a particular way of living life with God that the Bible actually provides for us countless ways (countless stories) describing different ways of living the “with God life.”

So instead of us all having to look, think, and act exactly the same as it relates to our relationship with God (and corresponding relationship with everyone else), we instead are given the opportunity to love and relate to God (and others) in a wide-variety of ways that all have the potential to honor and glorify God. It creates space for our personalities, gifts, passions, and other uniquenesses — all of which have been placed within us by God — to come out. In some ways it’s like comparing a collection of violinist all playing the same exact song to that of a full orchestra playing the exact same song.

Do you see how a diversity of expressions — of the exact same thing — can yield something much more robust and beautiful than a single expression?

What do you think?

And if this is the case, what are the characteristics that you see — from one story to the next within the Bible — that describe for us different ways of loving and relating to God.

I’d love to hear what you think about this.

(This post was inspired by a visit from Rachel Held Evans to our campus today.)