stop trying

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Oh that's easy, I'll graduate college a semester early with my boyfriend who then will propose and we will get married. After that, we will move to a big city and get jobs we love together having free time and money to take spontaneous trips on the weekend and get our yearly missional trip out of the way during the summer, maybe Uganda or something....
"Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"--yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil," James 4:13-16. 

What then, do we do? We could sit around binging on Netflix and professional sports putting our efforts into things that matter very little in this fast paced society we have been shoved into. There's probably a special on cheese balls at the grocery store, a coupon for a free scuba diving lesson somewhere on the internet, or even a new recipe to try out...but these things mean nothing without God. Am I saying God is in the cheese balls? Yes, absolutely but thats not the point that's being made here.
We, as a culture, have to stop planning our lives putting an unrealistic amount of tension and stress on our lives and future when all we are is mist. God says that we live in arrogance if we believe we can predict the plans the Lord has for us. Have faith, His plans are good and prosperous...why wouldn't we take all of these gifts He layed out for us so perfectly. The cookie cutter life you so lustfully crave can exist, but at what cost to your soul?

Let go these earthly prides you call your future. Let God take our broken bodies and become anew through His spirit. Take the eyes full of sin we have and transform them into portals for Your vision, making all things we do directed towards Your glory and Your presence in our lives.
"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he," 
Proverbs 29:18.

Wax on, wax off

Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off. The drone of every day life can sometimes muddle our true purposes. Daniel Larusso can't seem to grasp his mentor's (Mister Miagi) odd approach to training him in the highly skilled form of martial arts. He participates in activities such as cleaning his car, doing the dishes and sweeping the floors. It is a point of irritation for our protagonist, but by the karate tournament something magical happens. All of the menial tasks that he thought served no purpose actually were training him for the large goal at the end: to win the tournament. (I'm sorry if you've never seen this movie but he wins the tournament and gets the girl, classic)

There seemed to be a time when I could think with confidence that I understand this world, that the things I see all work together for my own personal good...In other words, I was naive. God sees and knows every facet of our lives. There are tasks we complete drudgingly every day that seem to have no purpose or meaning...Why would balancing my checkbook further God's glory? What does good grades have to do with His eternal love for us?
What most people can't see is that EVERYTHING we do affects His kingdom and His glory. My friend has a sign right under her front door that says, "Your are now entering the mission field" and this should ring true with everyone. All the people we see are influenced by us in some unforeseen way.

He has mighty plans for us, "Plans to prosper and not destroy, plans to give us a hope and a future" Jeremiah 29:11. With that in mind we should be living on easy street right?
Well, no. This is a cruel world full of fallible people. Life is hard and living out your faith is even harder. But we can take courage in this: "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith,"John 5:4. 

But we are all born from God not of Him...until something awesome happens. We die to ourselves and become more than we could ever be alone. "You however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you,"Romans 8:9.

Anyways, I don't know where I was really going with this but there are two points you should take from this post:

1.God works in mysterious ways but we should learn to trust His path for our lives (even if it should seem meaningless at times) and carry ourselves as if we are accomplishing the greatest task in the world.(Because we are, people!)

2.We are not enough to fulfill God's plans here on Earth. Without the Holy Spirit we would surely fail (I fail every day as it is). So take heart how incredible you are (or could be) with the unlimited potential of God's love and power sitting right inside of you every day waiting to fulfill what God has in store for us.

I'll stop there because this was a jumble of different idea trains, but I will leave you with this.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, Ephesians 3:20

Interruptible

The five-year plan. The perfect world where you graduate college, find a wife, step into an awesome job generator and get immediately put where you will live happily your entire life. This is what society feeds us. The entitlement our generation faces comes from the individualistic culture we have thrived under this far in our short little lives. There is no room for error, and if you don't know what you are going to be doing for the next 30 years at this exact moment--well you're screwed.
And He said to them,"Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." Immediately they left their nets and followed Him." Matthew 4:19-20.
This would not happen today: "Yeah, what kind of benefit packages are we talking about? Will I have to travel a lot? But y'all don't even have an office near the neighborhood I want to live, that would be a crazy commute...you should see their pool"
The disciples left everything behind. Their jobs, their security, their friends, their money; their lives. We are so self absorbed that many times God becomes the afterthought to our plans, hoping that He can squeeze His way in somewhere in there.
It's been really heavy on my heart these last few weeks that we, as Christians, need to be more interruptible. There are people with needs everywhere and all around us. Most of the time these needs are not recognized because no one will slow down to acknowledge them (sure makes it easier to disregard them when you don't have to see them).
Maybe God isn't calling you to teach English in Japan to impoverished children, but your neighbor down the street has found out they have a tumor on their spine and needs someone to do their yard work every month or so....or maybe it was a broken leg, no no it was a shark attack...You'll never know unless you open yourself up to the needs of others and become more perceptive to what God is calling you to do. Before I made you in your mother's womb, I chose you. Before you were born, I set you apart for a special work. Jeremiah 1:5
Be inspired. Listen to what He is telling you! Are you going to cram 20 hours into a Summer semester at school? Why not intern at a church for the summer instead. Thinking about going into graduate school? What's wrong with taking a year off to work in a mission in Africa educating the men to be better farmers...There are so many needs in this world and God uses us to further show His love.
It's the little things: paying for someone's lunch at another table, not getting that crazy cool watch and putting it towards a donation fund, even giving someone a ride to work. This is how love works, the more you give the more you receive: maybe not even from the other party but in ways you could never imagine until you take a chance, change a life, be who God has made you to be!

Slow down, listen. What is God saying?
Listen
Listen
And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him" 1Kings 19:11-13