So will I ever sing praises to Your name as I perform my vows day after day. (Verse 8)
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12
Vanessa really just wants to write music and sing. That is her Plan A for her life. Frustrated by the mundane life of earning a living doing her job right now, she often wonders, as she did last night, if she if living instead in Plan B. Such a good question. Honestly, we have all wondered that. Even the ones who got all the Plan A stuff they wanted. Because life isn't all it's cracked up to be sometimes. I know a young woman who only wanted to get married. Time was running out. In her late thirties, she has her Plan A and it doesn't look a thing like she thought marriage would be.
"I wish everyone could experience being rich and famous so they could see it's not the answer to anything." Jim Carrey. Even celebrity cannot fill the voids inherent in all of us. We aren't made to be worshiped, but to worship.
There is only one plan. A. Because I am fearfully and wonderfully made and my Creator knows exactly what I am made for. I want to write. That is pretty much all I want to do. All I've ever wanted to do in terms of purpose. I remember back in the early 80's when I had a brief stint as a bakery owner. I make really good bread. No doubt. But my business landlord came by one day and picked up a copy of my first book, LISA, which I had on the counter. He read it overnight and came back to the bakery the next day.
"Why would a person who writes like this make bread?" he asked.
Something in me tightened up. Indeed. Why? Because I had three children who needed to eat, dance, play baseball, and learn piano. I thought the business was a good idea. (Turns out it wasn't.) But the landlord's question was valid. Why was I baking instead of writing?
Here is my answer after all these years. I don't necessarily know where I am going. Don't gasp. If you are honest, you don't either. God's Word is a lamp to my feet and a light upon my path. It isn't a flood light that shows me the end of it all. I am on a journey, like Abraham and Sarah as they took God at His word and went to......the place God would show them. If we had the correct mindset about this very short life we have, we would be like a kid getting in the car for vacation with the family. Daddy knows where we are going. He is driving. He and Mom know the way. How long it will take. The stops along the way. The kid? Rolls the window down, lets the breeze blow in her face, chews gum, plays road games, sleeps a little and gets out when she's there. No stress in that journey. Yeah, we might run out of gas. A tire could go flat. Mom might suggest we stop to see The World's Largest Ear of Corn that is five miles out of the way. But the kid doesn't take this personally. We are on a trip. We expect some unexpected things to happen.
My Father just wants me to get in the car. I may have preconceived ideas of where He should take me. But if I think I can tell Him, Who knows my way, to turn left and right at my every command, I am mistaken and will be so frustrated with our journey. Should I live my life with my Plan A ever before me, I might just miss the joy of His plan and the roadtrip to it. The joyful singing in the car that goes along with the fun of being on a trip with my Father. The childlike hilarity of the moment. Freedom to die to expectations and feel the wind in my face. My Father has the trip all planned and it is going to be exhilarating. We just might not wind up where I thought. We might not go to Disneyland just because our brother or sister went there with Him. Our Father knows us so intimately He takes each of us on a different trek.
So put on your seatbelt. Roll down the window. Enjoy the journey. Yes, you will sacrifice your own plans. But if God only has Plan A for you, you will squirm and complain the whole way through and never see the sights He has planned for the trip if you cling to your inferior Plan B.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12
Vanessa really just wants to write music and sing. That is her Plan A for her life. Frustrated by the mundane life of earning a living doing her job right now, she often wonders, as she did last night, if she if living instead in Plan B. Such a good question. Honestly, we have all wondered that. Even the ones who got all the Plan A stuff they wanted. Because life isn't all it's cracked up to be sometimes. I know a young woman who only wanted to get married. Time was running out. In her late thirties, she has her Plan A and it doesn't look a thing like she thought marriage would be.
"I wish everyone could experience being rich and famous so they could see it's not the answer to anything." Jim Carrey. Even celebrity cannot fill the voids inherent in all of us. We aren't made to be worshiped, but to worship.
There is only one plan. A. Because I am fearfully and wonderfully made and my Creator knows exactly what I am made for. I want to write. That is pretty much all I want to do. All I've ever wanted to do in terms of purpose. I remember back in the early 80's when I had a brief stint as a bakery owner. I make really good bread. No doubt. But my business landlord came by one day and picked up a copy of my first book, LISA, which I had on the counter. He read it overnight and came back to the bakery the next day.
"Why would a person who writes like this make bread?" he asked.
Something in me tightened up. Indeed. Why? Because I had three children who needed to eat, dance, play baseball, and learn piano. I thought the business was a good idea. (Turns out it wasn't.) But the landlord's question was valid. Why was I baking instead of writing?
Here is my answer after all these years. I don't necessarily know where I am going. Don't gasp. If you are honest, you don't either. God's Word is a lamp to my feet and a light upon my path. It isn't a flood light that shows me the end of it all. I am on a journey, like Abraham and Sarah as they took God at His word and went to......the place God would show them. If we had the correct mindset about this very short life we have, we would be like a kid getting in the car for vacation with the family. Daddy knows where we are going. He is driving. He and Mom know the way. How long it will take. The stops along the way. The kid? Rolls the window down, lets the breeze blow in her face, chews gum, plays road games, sleeps a little and gets out when she's there. No stress in that journey. Yeah, we might run out of gas. A tire could go flat. Mom might suggest we stop to see The World's Largest Ear of Corn that is five miles out of the way. But the kid doesn't take this personally. We are on a trip. We expect some unexpected things to happen.
My Father just wants me to get in the car. I may have preconceived ideas of where He should take me. But if I think I can tell Him, Who knows my way, to turn left and right at my every command, I am mistaken and will be so frustrated with our journey. Should I live my life with my Plan A ever before me, I might just miss the joy of His plan and the roadtrip to it. The joyful singing in the car that goes along with the fun of being on a trip with my Father. The childlike hilarity of the moment. Freedom to die to expectations and feel the wind in my face. My Father has the trip all planned and it is going to be exhilarating. We just might not wind up where I thought. We might not go to Disneyland just because our brother or sister went there with Him. Our Father knows us so intimately He takes each of us on a different trek.
So put on your seatbelt. Roll down the window. Enjoy the journey. Yes, you will sacrifice your own plans. But if God only has Plan A for you, you will squirm and complain the whole way through and never see the sights He has planned for the trip if you cling to your inferior Plan B.
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