Bad Theology Kills- Choice
"God loves you and has a plan for your life." - Read at every christian graduation ceremony.
I heard from a friend recently in responce to one of my blog posts about "I heard God say". He sent me some awesome thoughts and I heard God say I should share it with all of you. It is God's plan that I share it here with all of you.
Jokes.
I just thought it was valuable and made the choice to put it here.
He writes:
"I’d be interested to read your thoughts on (how misusing God's voice affects) ones life trajectory! I have had friends paralyzed as they want to hear ‘God’s will for their life’. Or what the ‘right decision is’, adding a sense of morality to a career choice. The idea of God’s sovereignty over their life holds such a weight, that they’re practically sitting and waiting for a decision to be made for them.
My friend is paralyzed due to this thinking, he wants to hear from God soo badly, and is stuck waiting for God to intervene for him. He is listening to my other conservative friend who is telling him that God has his life figured out for him, things like jobs and who he is going to marry are all "part of that plan". I think this is exacerbating his situation.
Which also makes me wonder if the idea of God choosing who you marry can cause people to lessen their commitment and the significance of their covenant because God had ‘someone in mind for them’. I’m getting married soon and I think that God is really letting me choose this person, and because of that choice, I want to put in the hard work of things like conflict management!
I heard someone say once that we often focus so much on what God wants us to do, that we neglect the thought of who God is wanting us to be. Virtues like humility, integrity and faithfulness are forgotten in our day to day."
Bravo friend. Bravo.
He brings up a great point. I used to pray and ask what God's will was for my life. I was looking for a specific road map to follow. I wanted stone tablets engraved with the fingers of God to be brought down by carrier pigeons and say something like "You are to be a search and rescue helicopter pilot".
Thus says the Lord.
But instead I'm simply faced with daily decisions about where to go and what to do and who to help, and the only direction I seem to get from God are small directive statements like "love your neighbour" or "Do all things with love".
The last time I had a large decision to make I did feel like I heard from God.
I had to decide if I was going to be the single foster mom to a preteen girl, while my husband left for 8 months to another province, or if I would not. I cast my inner eyes upward and prayed "Lord, are you with me in this?" and the answer I heard? "Carmen, do you even have to ask?"
Do you even have to ask?
When you are defending the cause of the weak and fatherless, maintaining the rights of the poor and oppressed, rescuing the needy...do you even have to ask?
This is the will of my father....that you love your neighbour as yourself.
You can preach, you can teach, you can prophesy, you can be a search and rescue helicopter pilot, but if you have not love...then you are nothing but a resounding gong and a clanging symbol.
Maybe getting our theology right around God's plan for our lives has less to do with asking God what career He wants us to have, or what person He wants us to marry....and has more to do with working at our chosen career with love, and being the most loving spouse we can be to the person we used wisdom in choosing.
Choose well today people. Choose well.