Life is ______ . If asked to fill in the blank, I wonder what answers you would give. From a Christian perspective I really like the three things Pastor Rick Warren shared: “Life is a gift… Life is a test… Life is temporary assignment….”1 Let’s look at these three, “Life is” statements:
Life is a gift
The Scriptures tell us: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:17). Thus, you, my friend, are a gift from above. At conception, the foreknowledge of God became the reality of life, and you came into existence. And what a fantastic gift from above you are! Imagine, on planet earth today, eight billion plus precious human beings, have been gifted with the privilege to live and experience life. And not only that but to those who repent of their sin and accept Jesus as their sin substitute and Lord and Savior, God allows us to joyfully enter into a relationship with Jesus and live life to the fullest. And the most exciting thing about this gift of life is that it need not ever end because as Christians we will spend eternity with Jesus!
Life is a test
As Christians we understand that life is our training grounds for eternity. And as a result we need to trust God that He will test us and use our trials and afflictions to advance His Kingdom and that He wants to use us as His agents to bring great glory to His name, if we allow Him.
So Christian, what about you? Are you suffering from an illness? Have you recently lost your job? Or has your wife just had a miscarriage? In all of these unfair life situations, I believe God is testing us and has allowed them to happen because He has a master plan in which He wants to use your tragedy for His glory. Our role is to view these as tests to our faith and to trust God that He will use our sufferings in unique ways if we just turn them over to Him. So, rather than question God in these above cases with the refrain: “why me,” I much prefer to ask God how can you use these negatives to bless others and make me a God glorifying vessel!
Life is temporary assignment
I believe that as a Christian I am here on a temporary but very important assignment. And that assignment is to be an ambassador for Christ. Yes, I am here to worship Jesus, but this isn’t a temporary assignment since I will be doing this for all of eternity. But while I am here on earth for a very short time, when measured against eternity, my role is to represent my Savior and present Him to the world as the most loving, generous, and worthy to be praise Lord of the universe. And my role as an ambassador for Christ is to share the wonderful salvation story wherever I go, and to as many people I know, before I am called home to be with the Lord.
So why not continually thank God for the amazing gift of life He has given us, praise Him for the privilege of being tested in order that when we pass the test we can see our faith grow, and thereby glorify the Jesus, and be the best ambassador for Christ we can be!
1 Quote by Rick Warren: “Life is a gift… Life is a test… Life is tem…”
Life Is… A Gift, A Test, A Temporary Assignment (a Stewardship With a Due Date)
Hmm…
Life is God’s borrowed breath in your lungs, given for a moment to love Him and serve others, before you hand it back and face the audit. 🧾🔥
“Life is ______.” People fill that blank with whatever mood they woke up in: hard, short, unfair, chaotic, expensive.
Curt Blattman answers it with something sturdier and frankly, more useful. Life has meaning, purpose, and an Owner. That matters nowadays because while our Wurld defines secular “success” on control and $, Christian survival is built on certainty in Christ. Stewardship is built on remembering you’re managing assets you didn’t create.
Curt borrows Pastor Rick Warren’s three-part framing and drives it home.
• Life is a gift. Every good thing, including you, comes from the Father (James 1:17). The gift doesn’t end at death for the Christian. Eternity with Jesus is the continuation, not the cancellation.
• Life is a test. Trials are not random harassment. They’re training ground for eternity, meant to grow faith and bring God glory when surrendered to Him.
• Life is a temporary assignment. We’re here briefly, measured against eternity, and our job is ambassador work, representing Christ before we’re called home.
Curt’s tone is steady: gratitude for the gift, trust in the testing, and urgency in the assignment.
Because reality exists, and so do calendars:
1. Life is unpredictable. Not in a cute way. In a “health, timing, markets, and mortality” way.
2. Life is stewardship. A trust fund with rules, a mission with a deadline, a ledger that gets audited.
Those two additions don’t contradict Curt’s three. Think sharpening stones. A gift can be squandered. A test can be failed. An assignment can be abandoned. Stewardship is the word that keeps us from treating life like a toy. Unpredictability is the word that keeps us from pretending we’re God.
Yea baby, by the numbas we go.
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1) Life is a Gift… So Stop Living Like You created It
A gift from God demands gratitude and responsibility, not entitlement. James 1:17 doesn’t describe God as the cosmic vending machine. It describes Him as the source. Curt presses the obvious but rarely practiced truth: you exist because God willed it, not because you “manifested” it.
• Secular success: Gratitude makes you psychologically resilient and socially sane. People who think everything is earned become brittle, arrogant, and impossible to correct. People who know life is received can learn, adapt, and build without turning into tyrants.
• Christian survival: Receiving life as a gift kills the “why me?” reflex and replaces it with worship. Gratitude is spiritual ballast.
• Stewardship: Treat time, relationships, body, money, influence, and attention like entrusted property. Stewardship isn’t stinginess. It’s fidelity. The Christian doesn’t just ask, “What do I want?” We ask, “What does the Owner want done with what He gave?”
You don’t have to hate your life to waste it. You just have to treat it like it belongs to you.
2) Life is a Test… and the Questions Are Always the Same.
Personality assessments and those cute little spiritual gift checklists reveal what you actually worship: comfort, control, reputation, or Christ. Curt’s pastoral realism lands here: illness, job loss, miscarriage, betrayal, delay.
The test isn’t whether you can explain it. The test is whether you can trust God inside it. Scripture backs this pattern relentlessly: trials produce endurance and maturity (James 1:2–4). Faith gets proven, not merely claimed.
• Secular success: The marketplace rewards people who can take pressure without becoming dishonest. Trials either clarify your integrity or expose your fraud. If your “principles” vanish when your income does, you didn’t have principles. You had favorable conditions.
• Christian survival: Curt’s best move is reframing. Instead of “why me,” ask, “Lord, how do You want to use this?” That question turns suffering from a dead-end into discipleship. It doesn’t erase pain. It redeems it.
• Stewardship: Decide obedience before you know outcomes. Otherwise, your “obedience” is just a contract negotiation with God. Character becomes pastoral when it stays faithful under fog. God doesn’t waste tests. We do, when we demand control instead of learning trust.
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3) Life is a Temporary Assignment… and the Fog is Part of the Training.
Your timeline is short, your mission is clear, and your peace must be fixed, not found. Curt’s “temporary assignment” is not spiritual poetry. It’s job description: ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20). Meanwhile, the unpredictability piece matters. life WILL surprise you. Jesus will not. Peace comes from a mind stayed on God (Isaiah 26:3), and stability grows in those who love God’s Word (Psalm 119:165).
• Secular success: People who live like this work differently. They plan hard, hold plans loosely, and don’t melt down when the quarter goes sideways. Their identity isn’t fused to outcomes. That makes them calmer leaders and harder workers.
• Christian survival: Uncertainty is a bully. Don’t hand it the microphone. Stop auditioning for the role of God. You’re not getting the part. Your future details are unclear, but your destination in Christ is not. That is not optimism. That is assurance.
• Stewardship: If your assignment is temporary, then urgency is sane. Waste is tragic. Distraction is expensive. Doom-scrolling is not “being informed,” it’s feeding anxiety and calling it maturity. Replace the spiral with prayer, replace the chatter with Scripture, replace the addiction to control with obedience.
The world calls that “narrow.” Scripture calls it “wise.”
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Conclusion: Pastoral Character, Secular Success, Christian Survival.
Curt’s “Life is…” framing is a survival kit with doctrine in it. Life is a gift. Receive it with gratitude. Life is a test. Endure it with faith. Life is a temporary assignment: live it with mission.
And if you want the sharpened edge for the year we’re living in — life is unpredictable, but the Christian doesn’t have to be, because our certainty is anchored in Christ. Life is stewardship, which means pastoral character shows up as steadiness, secular success shows up as disciplined integrity. Christian survival shows up as joyful obedience when the future is blurry.
The mature believer doesn’t pretend the fog isn’t real. He just refuses to let the fog drive.
Life is a gift with a due date and a final audit.
Spend it like an ambassador, not like a control addict.