上帝在我家

註：本文轉自https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/gods-sovereign-plans-behind-your-most-unproductive-days，本文非商業用途且相關版權歸該網站及作者所有。

God's Sovereign Plans

Behind Your Most Unproductive Days

上帝在我們最沒效率的時光裡

仍有祂最高旨意

by Pastor John Piper

主講人　約翰派博牧師

Your Priorities  你的優先順序

Now what do I mean by saying, “God’s priorities for efficiency in this life are not ours”? I mean that our priority may be that between 10:00 and 11:00 this morning I planned to run to the bank and get some cash so that I can be back in time to pay the teenager who is cutting my grass while a neighbor watches my two- and four-year-old for me. That’s the plan.

我說：上帝對於效率的優先順序不同於我們在自己生命中的排列，是甚麼意思呢？我意思是說，我可能計畫從早上十點到十一點去銀行提錢，以便付錢給幫我除草的少年，這段時間我的鄰居替我照顧我兩歲及四歲的孩子。這是我的計畫。

You feel good — I’m making this up — that you very efficiently worked. You feel good that you worked it out. You worked it out so that the neighbor was available, the teenager could come, and you could get to the bank and get back before both of them had other engagements.

你感到美好，（這只是我想的例子而已），你做事很有效率。你覺得一切都照計畫走，非常好。你安排你的計畫，也確定鄰居有空，除草的少年可以來幫忙，且你可以在他們離開以前趕回來。

Those are your priorities, and you have an efficient plan: cut grass, kids watched, bank trip made, boy paid, everyone off to their next engagement. Victory. Efficiency. That’s what I mean by “our efficiency.”

這是你的優先順序，且你的計畫有效率：除草，照顧孩子，去銀行提錢，付錢給除草少年，大家就可以去做別的事情。勝利。效率。這就是我所說的＂我們的效率＂。

God’s Priorities  上帝的優先順序

However, God in this case has a totally different set of priorities.

然而，上帝擁有與我們完全不同的優先順序。

Your neighbor was scheduled to be at a real estate office at 11:30 a.m. so she could join her husband to close on a new house — a house which, unbeknownst to them, has a flawed foundation. The teenager was planning to take his money from cutting the grass and pool it with some of the guys and buy some drugs that they shouldn’t be using. You hit a traffic jam caused by a rollover of a semi (which has another story behind it). You’re locked up on the freeway for an hour. You never even get to the bank.

你的鄰居計畫早上十一點半要跟丈夫去租屋公司簽約，但是他們並不知道這個新屋子的地基有瑕疵。而割草的少年計畫用薪水跟其他人合買根本不該使用的毒品。結果，你在路上交通堵塞，因為一台重型卡車翻車了（這又是另一個故事了）。你在快速道路上卡了一小時，也未能去銀行辦事。

You rush home as fast as you can, but you get there an hour late. You have no money to pay the boy, and your neighbor has missed her appointment. You are frustrated almost to tears.

你用最快速度衝回家，但是你已經晚到一小時。你沒錢支付除草的少年，你的鄰居也沒去租屋公司。你沮喪到快哭出來。

Your efficiency proved utterly useless to accomplish your priorities. You failed, but God’s priorities totally succeeded. He wanted to hinder that boy from buying drugs, he wanted to spare the neighbor from purchasing a house that’s a lemon, and he wanted to grow your faith in his sovereign wisdom and sovereignty.

你證明了你無法有效完成你的優先順序。你失敗了，然而上帝的優先順序卻成功了。祂想阻止少年買毒品，也不想讓鄰居買到爛房子，同時也希望使你對祂的最高旨意與智慧更充滿信心。

Now, that’s what I mean by “God’s priorities for efficiency in this life are not ours.”

這就是我剛說的: "上帝對於效率的優先順序跟我們不同"。

Joseph’s Slow Journey 約瑟的緩慢旅程

In my view, this isn’t happening just now and then; it’s happening all the time. When you read the Bible, you see in virtually every book the story of God doing things that are not the way humans would do them or want them done. God almost never takes the shortest route between point A and point B.

在我看來，這不是偶然發生的事情。這事情隨時都在發生。當你閱讀聖經，你就可以看到幾乎每卷書裡面，上帝完成事情的方式，都不會是人會用的或是希望使用的方式。上帝幾乎從來不會從A點抄捷徑到B點。

The reason is that such efficiency — the efficiency of speed and directness — is not what he’s about. His purpose is to sanctify the traveler, not speed him between A and B. Frustrating human efficiency is one of God’s primary — I say primary, not secondary — means of sanctifying grace.

原因是--效率本身的速度與直接性，並不是上帝的旨意。祂的旨意是要讓身為行者的我們更聖潔，而不是快速從A點到B點。使人類沮喪的效率是上帝使我們聖潔化最重要的--而不是第二重要-的方法。

The story of Joseph in Genesis 37–50 is one of the clearest examples, right? Joseph is hated by his brothers, thrown in a pit, sold into slavery, sold to Potiphar, accused of sexual harassment, thrown into prison, forgotten by Pharaoh’s butler, then finally — seventeen years in? — made vice president of Egypt so that he could save his family from starvation.

創世紀第37章到第50章就是最明顯的例子，對吧? 約瑟為他的兄弟們所痛恨，被丟入坑洞，賣去作奴隸，賣給波提乏，被指控性騷擾，再受牢獄之災，被法老的臣子遺忘，最後--十七年後--變成埃及的"副總統"，使得約瑟可以拯救他的家人免於饑荒。

The moral of the story comes in Genesis 50:20. Joseph says to his brothers, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” God had an agenda. God had a plan. God meant it for good.

故事的意義可從創世紀第50章第20節看出端倪。約瑟對他的兄弟說: "從前你們的意思是要害我，但神的意思原是好的，要保全許多人的性命，成就今日的光景。" 上帝有祂的時程，有祂的計畫。上帝的本意原為良善。

It’s as if he said, “You guys, you rascals, were the ‘traffic jam’ that kept me from getting to the bank for seventeen years. But God was positioning me to be the savior of my people, and he was in no hurry. I was being tested at every single point. Would I trust him with his seemingly meaningless inefficiency? It wasn’t meaningless.”

就像他說: "你們這群冥頑之徒，就是讓我十七年都去不了銀行的擁塞。但是上帝把我放在一個為了拯救我民的位置，且祂並不倉促。我不斷受到考驗。我能信任上帝看似沒意義的效率嗎? 那並非沒有意義。"

Paul’s Change of Plans 保羅計畫的改變

When Paul was trying to get to Spain, he did so with a good plan. He had a plan — he had a really good plan. He basically said, “I’m going to go to Jerusalem and deliver the money. Then I’m going to get on a boat, go to Rome, gather some support, and end my life in Spain.” What a great plan. But then he found himself in prison in Rome. What did he say?

當保羅試著前往西班牙，他透過一個好計畫來達成。他有個計畫--非常好的計畫。他基本上說: "我要去耶路撒冷交錢，然後坐船去羅馬，在那找尋支持我的人，然後在西班牙度過餘生。" 多麼好的計畫。 但是後來他在羅馬入監。他說了甚麼?

He says it in Philippians 1:12–13: “I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ.”

在腓立比書第1章12節到13節，保羅說: "弟兄們， 我願意你們知道， 我所遭遇的事更是叫福音興旺; 以致整個王宮衛隊和所有其餘的人，都清楚我是為基督的緣故被捆鎖的。"

His priorities for efficiently getting to Spain were shattered, but God’s purposes to evangelize the imperial guard in Rome stayed right on track.

他想優先回到西班牙的效率被打亂了，但是上帝的旨意是為傳福音給羅馬帝國防衛軍，使他們走在正途。

A Daily Plan 每日計畫

By all means, make your list of to-dos for the day. By all means, get as good at that as you can get. Prioritize the list. Get first things first. Make your plan. Do the very best you can. Go ahead and read a book about it.

無論如何，請仍舊每天列出你的計畫。無論如何，盡力完成計畫上的待辦事項。把清單依優先順序排列，然後照順序完成。計畫，盡力實現。你也可以閱讀相關書籍。

Then walk in the peace and freedom that, when it shatters on the rocks of reality, which it will most days, remember, you’re not being measured by God by how much you get done. You’re being measured by whether you trust the goodness and the wisdom and the sovereignty of God to work this new mess of inefficiency for his glory and the good of everyone involved, even when you can’t see how.

很多時候，當計畫被現實摧殘時，也能夠心平氣和與自由的繼續往前，記住，上帝不是以你有能力做多少事情來看待你。祂是以你對他的良善與智慧的信心來看待你，透過上帝的旨意與榮耀，祂會帶領你走過所謂的沒效率的每一天，每個在你計畫中的人亦為上帝所領，就算你無法度測。