The Undriven Life—The Christian Difference, Part 2 by Carolyn Cote

If “awesome” has a perfect opposite it would be something pretty close to “awful.” Becoming undriven is a process and that process is necessarily an awful one.

If you’re in the midst of awesome’s antonym, this teaching will make your heart soar with hope. If you’re not, well, awful will come because the Lord disciplines those He loves. Seasons of awful are seasons of an autumn-like dropping of those dead things no longer needed to sustain the tree’s life. The winter which follows is a renewing stillness where Truth Himself fills you with what you will need for the seasons of fruitfulness to follow. This fruitfulness is the Lord’s holy purpose for you. This is different from what you have often thought of as fruitfulness because it comes naturally from within and the eternal fruit produced, remains.

My own awesomeness began when I was 14 and a freshman at Mater Dei High School in Southern California. I stood waiting in the hallway outside of speech class and held with trembling hands the subject card I’d pulled from the impromptu speech box. I had just two minutes to prepare a 3-minute speech on the subject of “ABORTION.” The speech I ended up giving went well. Later, the teacher took me aside and said, “Carolyn, I have to say that your great speech was unexpected. It really got me thinking.”

Sometimes it’s an innocent compliment which sets you on a “driven” course. Such was the case with me.