Dear ______:
You ask whether, with all these ways to go astray, if there is a reliable way to find God’s plan for your life. That’s an interesting question.
Possibly even more interesting is the question of whether God actually has a plan for your life.
Many assume that God does. Some will put that right at the heart of the Gospel message.
In college a couple of the Christians in my fraternity set out to share their faith with all the guys in the house using a little four-step tract. Step one was
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.
Many Christians hold tenaciously to the idea that God has very specific daily plans. People find it comforting, especially if their intuition or their sense of the Holy Spirit tends to nudge them toward good choices.
I think, though, that there are potential dangers to thinking of your relationship with God this way.
One danger is that it can make following Christ too much like walking a tightrope.
If God has a plan you have to get it right. There is one, and only one, path across the chasm. Find it and you are golden. One wrong step and all is lost.
A second danger is that it can keep us thinking like infants or children.
If my kids have to get my direct orders for everything they do, then something has gone wrong in my parenting.
Early on I give them lots of specific instructions. My plans include training them with basic life skills, and social skills too. I get pretty insistent about it.
But the real goal is for them to learn how to make their own good decisions.
There: I slipped into a different kind of language.
I do not have plans for my kids’ lives. I have goals.
That is, the details of their lives are not mine to plan. I don’t want to decide if or where they will attend university, or what they will do for a living, or other important things.
But I do have goals for them: I want for them to become wise and good, loving and kind, faithful and generous. I want them to learn to love God, follow Christ, and serve other people in God’s world. Any of that will make me a very proud papa.
What if the same applies with God?
A while back in one of these letters I quoted one of my favorite passages of Scripture:
we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (Ephesians 5:15 NRSV)
That is, we aren’t merely supposed to be born again. We are supposed to grow up again. We are supposed to grow up to live the kind of lives that make God proud. We are supposed to become like Jesus — who is after all
Christ … the wisdom of God. (1 Cor. 1:24 NRSV)
God is at least as good a father to you as I am to my children.
Instead of looking for God’s plan, maybe you should look for God’s audacious holy goal for your life.
So how will you find your way to a vocation that meets God’s goals for you?
- Maybe it includes thinking very carefully about how a line of work will will shape your character.
- Maybe it requires thinking hard about how that line of work will accomplish things God wants done.
If you are willing to share your thoughts about those questions I would absolutely love to hear.
And then I’ll share some other approaches to thinking about your calling that I think you’ll find useful.
Blessings,
Gary
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This post is part of a series. To start at the beginning, click here. To go to the next installment, click here.
Fr. Dustin says
August 28, 2015 at 3:42 PMGary,
I like your turnaround from plans to goals!
If one believes in plans, it can put the pastor in a very difficult pastoral position when something bad comes along for a parishioner – such as death. For example, if they have a child who died, saying that it was a part of God’s plan is not very pastoral…and, I believe, not very biblical.
Goals, on the other hand, take the conversation in a very different direction.
Obviously, one way to reorient people is to teach about “goals,” instead of “plans,” as you’re doing.
But I wonder, what sort of pastoral tips would you have for someone who currently believes that God has a plan for them, and, yet, this person is truly suffering? How does a pastor gently nudge them in a different direction?
Gary Neal Hansen says
August 28, 2015 at 5:23 PMThanks, Fr. Dustin.
With all matters of theodicy, suffering, providence, and guidance, I think the key thing is timing: teach about it when it is not a time of suffering. Then when suffering comes, people are more likely to have good resources to draw upon.
It can seem like suffering causes people to actively ask these questions, but I think a wise pastor will filter the question and hear it as a lament. As when Job lamented on the ash heap, the best thing his friends did was sit with him in silence. They made a botch of it when they started advising him about the reasons for suffering.
Fr. Dustin says
August 30, 2015 at 1:42 PMThank you, Gary!
It seems we are called “human beings,” rather than “human doers” for a reason. Sometimes all we can do is “be” with someone.
Susan Honeycutt says
October 1, 2015 at 9:37 PMNAILED IT: “Instead of looking for God’s plan, maybe you should look for God’s audacious holy goal for your life.”
Now that said, I must confess, my life verses are Jeremiah 29:11-15 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
Need to make a some clarifying comments.
1. This has been my life verses for 40 years. For me in suffering, death, grief, suicidal thoughts, job loss, network loss, church changes, loss of friendship, etc. You know – regular life events. Throughout the journey, God has used these verses to encourage me.
2. Yes, I know their primary application is prophetic for God’s chosen people, the Israelite nation. But I also believe that it is valid to accept all scripture to be used for doctrine, for teaching, for reproof, ….you know the verse…to a young pastor — right?
3. Way back in growing up – I was taught what you call the “tightrope” method. Only their analogy was as a target, and the term “being in the center of God’s will” was frequently used. It simply didn’t work for me beyond the age of 13. Somewhere between the ages of 13 and 16, I slowly transitioned to a realization that what God really wanted of me was to simply be FACING the target. Turning my back on the pressures of peers and the worldview that was alternately shoved down my throat.
Now with your use of the term GOALS instead of PLANS – I do believe God has plans, but my definition of God’s plans are defined the way you use the term GOALS. I do however, have to rethink that God may have an “audacious holy goal” for my life. Having accepted the semi-colon which is my current life, I have realized that if God didn’t want me to be here, I wouldn’t be. So what do I do with the time left?
Gary Neal Hansen says
October 2, 2015 at 11:08 AMThanks so much, Susan. I too love that passage. Glad you see that there is a sense that the terminology of “goals” and “plans” can be a bit fluid. When God says he has “plans” for Israel, I suspect he is talking about big directions and purposes to fulfil in and through them — rather than the “specific instruction for every single step” variety.
What to do in the time left? That’s the question isn’t it? Tallying passions, priorities, and resources and finding joyful creative ways to invest them for the Kingdom’s good is a rich process.
Susan Honeycutt says
October 5, 2015 at 3:01 PMYes indeed. During our small group study last night, (Romans 12, Chip Ingram), we were asked how different our life would look in 30 days if we were “All in” (as analogy to the gambling phrase). We were discussing whether we see a life completely devoted to God as a positive or a negative. I was considering the question again today in my quiet time. I think at this point, the only thing that would change is 1. Fearlessness – taking Godly chances to step out on faith and 2. Sharing the gospel more verbally than I typically do. Still thinking as this post and series dovetails into the other study.
God is so amazing and so good. ALL the time. My husband overheard me speaking to our rescue dog. She is lovely and docile and has lead a hard life. She is beginning to trust us after 6 months with us, but still will not voluntarily take the leach. She will not submit – from fear I suspect. Well, that day, I was trying to take both our dogs on a walk. She badly wanted to go, but would not take the leash. I didn’t realize the spiritual implications of what I said to her (*in my frustration), but my husband did. What I said was “Oh Vivi, if you only knew the freedom you would experience and how much more I could give you and you would enjoy if you would but submit to the leash. You break my heart”. My husband pointed out yesterday, that perhaps this is how God feels when he longs to lead us to audacious goals and fuller blessings, but we, out of fear, or …… do not want to submit to His goals for us.
There is fluidity and freedom to be found by recognizing what God really longs to give us.
Gary Neal Hansen says
October 6, 2015 at 9:28 AMThat really is a great story, Susan — brilliant.
And I’m glad to hear the series is meshing with your group’s study. Feel free to share the link to the start (or any useful post) with your gang.