Today we have a guest blogger: my dear friend Amy, who is a freshman at Bryan College in Tennessee.
Here are her thoughts on the plans of God:
A is good...but B is good too
What if I were to be all deep and spiritual and say to you …God gives us choices. Your response might be something like, DUH. Of course God gives us choices! That is part of what it means to be human, why we are not robots, free will and all that stuff.
But if you are anything like me, your idea of those “choices” involves a good choice…and a bad choice. Take Path A and all this great stuff will happen. Take Path B and you will completely screw yourself and your future. Worst of all, you have strayed from God’s perfect plan for your life, so now you are damaged goods! Really, no pressure.
Recently I have been struggling with a decision that, while not completely life changing, was pretty obviously a crossroads. Panic ensue! I was fairly certain one of those paths must be God’s will, and the other one must not be. Obvious right? But I had no idea which was which. In fact, both paths seemed good.
I was talking with a friend about this internal struggle I was having and she gave me some wise advice. In fact, it is what I just shared with you. God gives us choices. But! Those choices don’t necessarily have to be good vs. bad. Sometimes God gives us two good paths, and lets us choose. He lets us pick our blessings.
Or, as the speaker the next day put it, A is good. But B is good too.
Did you catch that? In case I didn’t, God sent it to me twice, first from my friend and then from a speaker. A relationship with God is not a blind attempt to follow a hidden path. It is not sitting around wondering if He said left and you misunderstood and went right. God doesn’t have just one perfect path laid out that if you stray from you are screwed. He is the God of the universe and knows what you think before you even think it. He knows the decisions you are going to make long before you make them. Yet somehow, in some marvelous way beyond my comprehension, He allows us freedom in the relationship. A freedom to choose, because He has provided Path A and Path B and both lead to blessings. Of course, there is also a Path C that leads away from God. We have freedom to choose that too.
Mind blown yet? Perhaps I can give a more personal example. When I was six years old, I decided I wanted to go to Patrick Henry College. And for almost twelve years, that was my ambition. It was simple a fact of life. I was going to go to PHC. And in a way, God did open up that door. I was accepted to the school, got scholarships, path A was ready for me.
But so was Path B. There was this school in Tennessee, you see, a little bit bigger than PHC, and more missions focused, called Bryan College. They were actually…pretty awesome. But more awesome than PHC? I was in doubt. Yet when it came time to make my final decision, it wasn’t so easy. Bryan or PHC? Path A or Path B? I didn’t know. I assumed one was God’s perfect choice, and one was less perfect. Though it was not my main concern by any stretch of the imagination, one of my friends summed up the uncertainty when she said, “What if my future husband goes to the school I was supposed to go to, and I don’t meet him?”
Path A or Path B?
Well, those of you who know me know the answer. I chose B. I went to Bryan. And yet even though I have been here going on five months, and I absolutely LOVE it, I have often wondered…why God? Why did you put that desire for PHC in a little girl’s heart if you were going to take me here? Was I just being stubborn? Did I make the wrong decision? But here seems so right.
In light of this idea about choices, I believe God would have blessed me if I had gone to PHC. I know, without a doubt, that Bryan College has blessed me more than I ever imagined. God gave me a choice…and wherever I go, He goes with me. There is no yellow-brick path that I must absolutely NEVER stray from. Sometimes there are two perfectly good directions.
Now, here is what I am not saying. I am not saying God endorses every decision we make. If I go out and get drunk, God may bring beauty out of that pain, but that doesn’t mean it was His will. And sometimes, there is a very clear Yes and a very clear No. We have to be in tuned to that. There is no point of no return with God. He will love us no matter what, but there is definitely a line of what God’s willis and what isn’t. Discovering His will isn’t always easy, but I have found Scripture, wise counsel, and simply prayer to be the best answers.
God gives us freedom in our relationship. He doesn’t micro-manage. We are not half-robots that have no say in the good stuff. He has a will for us, yes, but sometimes we get to pick the blessings that go with that will. For me, that is a life-changing realization. I am carrying a burden I don’t need to when I stress out about pleasing God. Because on my own I can’t please God, and that is okay.
Thanks, Amy!
'Till next time,
No comments:
Post a Comment