Whose plan?

God doesn’t have a wonderful plan for your life. Your life is for His plan.

Paraphrase from J.D. Walt

  Desire is a two-sided coin best not left to the flip. For on the one side resides the obvious good and on the other the obvious bad. Both share the intended and unintended consequences to self and others. Of the essence and meaning of human nature, desire drives those actions deemed rational. But one side of the coin must be pursued while the other notably and noticeably restrained. What, then, must the Christian do? How should we deal with such an essence if we are to be children of God? Of all moments in the Christian’s walk, most transforming is the moment when he realizes that he desires God more than self, that what God desires and provides is better than the best of his imagination. And God does provide for those who seek and thirst, desire what God desires. The Psalms has been characterized as a prayer book, a song book, a conversation with God. In the Hebrew-English Tanakh, the Psalms is the first book of what is known as the Writings. The writing of the Psalms is an assurance to those who seek God, wish to know His character, to desire that conversation. Never does the writing convey the charge

God be with you,

but affirmatively God is with you. The truth confronting the seeker is simple. Are you with God? No, not that you believe in God, but do you believe God? And if you do, you have taken a step God desires for you, worked within you while it was unknown to you, decidedly entered into the new life. What you did not intend, what God did, has met you as the truth you were born to discover—your life is for His plan. When this has come to you from the unseen to the seen, from the unknowable to the known, you now understand God is with you. With confidence comes the assurance, I

dwell in the shelter of the Most High

. What now arises is a new paradigm for you, ancient as God is eternal, a clear perspective, an end sought in searching God’s word that was not there before. When you once thought you were searching for self, you are now seeking God’s plan and asking God how you should enter into it, what gift did God give you to give back to him? Ask and you shall receive. This is the new life. God’s consuming fire has claimed you. And having claimed you, new light shines from God’s word, the meaning you thought you knew reveals something else, something of God, something of the mystery that is there but waited for you to desire it. Cursory is not a word you apply to the reading anymore, to your faith life, to loving neighbor as self. But beware, God wishes to disturb the well-arranged life.