God Has a Plan, We Have a Choice

Wow. It's been a while since there has been a new post around here! I'm as guilty as anybody, but wanted to share with the blog this morning.

I recently attended a Kentucky Annual Conference youth event called Winter Blitz. We had a speaker there, Duffy Robbins, who spoke about three main things: 1) God has a plan. 2) [hu]Man[ity] has a problem. 3) The choice is up to you. I've been meditating on this stuff for a while, as I'm leading the youth group of my church in discussion about the stuff that Duffy talked about.

Often, when people talk about God's plan, we are referenced to Jeremiah 29:11, which finds the Israelites recently exiled to Babylon. The scripture says this: "'For surely I know the plans I have for you,' says the Holy One, 'plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. Wen you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all of your heart, I will let you find me,' says the Holy One."

While it is true that God is telling the Israelites that the plan that God had for Israel will still be valid after the end of the Exile, we often leave out the responsibility that WE have to GOD. We still have things that God expects from us, it's not just a simple following of God's plan. This scripture suggests various actions on the part of Israel to make God's plan a reality. They have to have to call upon God, meet God, pray, search, and seek. And not just lightheartedly, either! God, through Jeremiah, says that they have to seek "with all of your heart."

Do you truly seek God with all of your heart? I know that I don't always put that much effort into it. I look for God, and I pray, and I go certain places sometimes where I expect to find God. But I don't always do enough to actively seek God daily, constantly, and consistently with all of my heart. As I speak to the youth of the church on Sunday, I hope that you will be in prayer with me that they, myself, and all of us can truly take that scripture to heart.

If we expect to be made aware of God's plan, we have to be looking whole-heartedly.

Barf Bags Make Great Bookmarks

Do you ever feel like God is calling you in lots of different directions all at once? Like your calling has lots of little elements that don’t really fit together perfectly all the time? You’re being pushed and pulled in multiple directions all at once. It’s enough to make you feel a bit woozy.

Applying to, visiting, and eventually choosing a theology school is a tedious and stressful process. I know – I did it last year, and I’m doing it again right now. After finding the school that I loved, my situation has changed and I find myself once again going through the application and discernment process, this time as a transfer student.

I felt called to Boston University School of Theology last year, like it was perfect for me. It was the only school that I applied to, and I received a generous scholarship to attend. Sure, Boston is an expensive city to live in, but as a single person, it was fairly doable. It was the perfect fit for me, it was close to my girlfriend (who had been going to school in Vermont for three years – 3,000 miles across the country from me and our home state of Washington), and their academics are great.

Jump forward a year. Boston University is still a great fit, and their academics are still great… But the girlfriend is now my fiancée, and we’re getting married in July. Boston’s cost of living, along with being confined to the public transportation system (Boston rent, parking AND a car payment? Not going to happen.) began looking like a more and more financially irresponsible choice for us.

Having to discern a call for one person is pretty tough in itself… When you add in another person, another life that is affected by your decisions, it gets even more tough and confusing.

So, I began writing this entry as I was sitting sitting in the Chicago/Midway Airport on my way back to Boston after visiting Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri. It was a wonderful visit, and while the school is very different from Boston University School of Theology, it has a lot of really great attributes. I could certainly see myself being happy spending a few years out there. It could be a great place for Crystal (my fiancée) and I to start our life together. If she is able to get a teaching job out there, it would be absolutely perfect. For me, anyway. Maybe it will be for her, as well, we’ll have to talk about it and see what we can figure out. My calling has become, at least in part, our calling. And it’s exciting, and it’s scary, and sometimes it makes me want to run away and hide.

In a couple of weeks, I'm going to visit Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY. More admissions and financial aid people to meet with, more students to talk to, and more decisions to make. And of course, plenty of pictures to take so that I can share as much as possible with Crystal.

When I was on one of my flights, I was reading a book. When the flight attendant brought snacks, I put a barf bag into the book to mark my page. That got me to thinking… Sometimes when things get rough, when you feel like you’re going to get sick, that’s a great place to stop and take a break, to sit back and gather your thoughts. Barf bags make great bookmarks.

I Don't Wanna Go!!

I was in church this morning, and the children's sermon had just ended. It was time for the children to leave and go to Sunday School. A boy sitting in front of me, probably about three years old, started yelling "I don't wanna go!" as his parents cajoled him into going.

This made me think about my own experience when I was younger. I, too, wasn't extremely fond of Sunday School. But even though I didn't want to go, my parents knew something that I didn't. They knew that I was going to be doing fun art projects, getting to know friends, and, ultimately, learning about the God that my parents already knew and loved. Looking back at those days, I'm now thankful for my parents making me go to church, because I still remember those bible stories that I learned back then

I think that it's similar with God. Part of being called, for many of us, involves us saying, "I don't wanna go! I'm comfortable right here! Why do I have to go there?!" But God, our heavenly Parent, knows something that we don't know... Yet. What we're going to do, who we're going to meet, and what projects we're going to have when we get there is often kept from us. Like that child, it takes some trust and maybe even a leap of faith to be willing to go somewhere unknown.

This little thought process of mine happened before the sermon even started, so I got extremely excited when the pastor began talking about the attributes of a call as the bible describes them. Stories of individuals being called by God are found throughout both the Old and New Testaments, and the stories share a number of commonalities.

People who experience an authentic call from God are reluctant to accept it and "resist mightily." Rev. Scott Campbell, the pastor of Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church where I attend, described this as being similar to being drafted to where God has chosen for you to be, rather than making a career choice. Biblical calls also come with feelings of inadequacy for the call that God has made, but that moves them toward a reliance on God for results - that is, God doesn't choose the most gifted and talented among us, but works inside of us and provides for us.

God calls us to go into places where we aren't comfortable, where we feel inadequate. God continues to call us as we try to pull back, as we try to run away. I've come to realize that no matter how far I try to run, there are always more bushes that can burn. I also believe that God won't lead us to a place where we have no chance at succeeding, where we can't grow and learn.

Toward the end of the service, the boy returned from Sunday School. He excitedly showed his parents the bookmarks that he made while he was there. We, too, can create something to be proud of when we follow where we are led.