Honk if you love planning.
Or if you love when plans exist. Ones that are relatively foolproof and give you peace of mind from any stray detours that may pop out of nowhere because not only is Plan A a thing, but also Plans B-AA. The world and all its unpredictables submit to you.
I think Christians, for the most part, feel entitled to have their plans work out. You know, because we’re “in the will of God” or whatever. Like we forgot all the times in the Bible when Paul was in God’s will when He shared Jesus with people who didn’t know Him, and then he got stoned/beaten/imprisoned/killed. Or when the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah spent 40 years warning his people what would happen if they did not give up their sin and turn back to God – and was completely ignored. Or when the Israelites asked God if they should go to war, and He tells them yes. They follow through… and are annihilated. They ask God again, with tears and offerings, and He confirms that they should fight a second time. Again, they are horribly defeated. They ask Him again, earnestly seeking Him once more, and He tells them to go and fight a third time. This time, they nearly wipe out their adversaries.
We talk a lot about the idea of failure and "was this really God's will, since it's not working out?" kind of stuff. We sit on the floor with faces in our palms, tears in our eyes, fire on our lips, asking, “What the heck, God? I thought this is what you wanted me to do.”
And sure, sometimes we take a chance, and things fall through. Sometimes we hear God wrong (or "hear" what we want to hear). But sometimes, and perhaps a lot more often than we suspect… The will of God looks to us like a catastrophic failure.
I think Christians, for the most part, feel entitled to have their plans work out. You know, because we’re “in the will of God” or whatever. Like we forgot all the times in the Bible when Paul was in God’s will when He shared Jesus with people who didn’t know Him, and then he got stoned/beaten/imprisoned/killed. Or when the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah spent 40 years warning his people what would happen if they did not give up their sin and turn back to God – and was completely ignored. Or when the Israelites asked God if they should go to war, and He tells them yes. They follow through… and are annihilated. They ask God again, with tears and offerings, and He confirms that they should fight a second time. Again, they are horribly defeated. They ask Him again, earnestly seeking Him once more, and He tells them to go and fight a third time. This time, they nearly wipe out their adversaries.
We talk a lot about the idea of failure and "was this really God's will, since it's not working out?" kind of stuff. We sit on the floor with faces in our palms, tears in our eyes, fire on our lips, asking, “What the heck, God? I thought this is what you wanted me to do.”
And sure, sometimes we take a chance, and things fall through. Sometimes we hear God wrong (or "hear" what we want to hear). But sometimes, and perhaps a lot more often than we suspect… The will of God looks to us like a catastrophic failure.
I don’t know if you guys know this, but missionaries have actually been in Thailand for a really, really long time. Yet, somehow, the percentage of Christians remains below 1%. Of course, we want to analyze all the approaches to evangelism and church planting and what those guys did wrong and how we can be the miracle cure to the vast shortage of Christ followers. And there’s validity to a lot of that, probably. (Well, besides us being the miracle cure. We’re not that cool.)
But… maybe those missionaries weren’t all necessarily doing it “wrong”. Maybe, for whatever purpose that only He can see for now, for whatever greater thing there is to come… God designed it that way.
I mean, that sounds really harsh. Like God doesn’t give a crap at all about us or what we think. And that is a lie. Somehow, this mysterious God of ours simultaneously loves each of us fiercely and cares about every single detail of our lives – and His "ultimate goal is to uphold and display the glory of his name." Small picture and big picture.
The truth is, sometimes, our perspective is just small.
I wonder what it would be like to stand back and ask for His perspective. If we surrendered our false genie gods and prosperity gospels and said, “Lord I don’t get it, but I have to believe You do.” What if “living a better story” quit being about how dazzling our repurposed efforts looked and, instead, had only to do with seeing where God was working and joining Him in it, for His glory, no matter the cost?
That’s what my teammates and I are trying to wrap our heads around: the idea that, in spite of our beautiful and God-inspired vision for Thailand, we don’t know what will happen. Because people ask us about the strategy, the grand plan, the So what are you guys going to actually do? all the time. And honestly? Our plan is to ask God. To see where He is already working. And then to join Him in it. No matter what that ends up looking like.
Have you ever been there? That place where you thought you heard right, you truly believed God led you somewhere, and it didn’t work out… only to see Him bring it all together later? Or maybe He hasn’t – not yet – and you’re wondering what’s going on. Tell us about it.
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