A few Sundays ago, I was listening to the sermon at church, and I was particularly struck by a few things the pastor mentioned. Here's my 2 cents:
Although a rhino is quite an intimidating animal, did you know that they have extremely poor eyesight? Rhinos can see less than 100 feet in front of them. So, if I were in the wilderness, and stumbled across a heard of rhinos, as long as I was further than 100 feet away from them, I'd be OK, right? Um. Wait. Maybe I forgot something. They have GIANT horns on their faces. Rhinos, while nearly blind have a very keen sense of hearing. If I was standing 100 feet away, though they could not see me, chances are the rhinos could hear me breathing. And if they felt threatened, they'd probably have no hesitation charging at whatever that thing was that they just heard.
You see, the horn on their faces gives the rhinos courage to not be afraid of what they can't see in front of them. It was put in exactly the right place - to protect them!
My point is this: God is our horn.
Ok. Now let's back up.
Psalm 119:105 tells us, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path" (NIV). God's word lights our paths.
When I think about what that actually means, "a light for my path," I think pretty literally about it. On a path in the dark, you will carry a flashlight, or a lantern or even a cellphone. How far ahead can you see? Not very. Not far at all. The flashlight (lantern, cellphone, whatever) provides just enough light for us to see what is around us currently. Just enough light to get by. Just enough light to feel safe where we are. Yet, one thing is always uncertain on a path. You don't know what's ahead.
Flashlights are better than lanterns and cellphones, for sure, because they can project farther, but unless you have a million watt candle power flashlight, you still don't have an exact clear picture of what the path leads to beyond a certain point.
Such is life, right? As we travel life's little path, we can only see what's in our bubble. What's in our present. What's within our lantern's glow. And that's ok! Why? It's like rhinos... They have that horn that makes them so unafraid that they will run towards what ever they feel like running towards! We have God's word! (Sometimes a horn would be nice, too, but alas...) God gives us his word to protect us and to guide us and to give us the confidence to keep walking down the path we're on, even though we have NO idea what's in front of us!
And do you know what my favorite part about this is? It's OK to not know what's in front of you. It's OK to not know "what I'm supposed to do with my life" or "what God's plan is for my life." God places us on his green earth and says, "OK, my child! Now go! Live your life! And trust me, you'll be ok."
Jeremiah 29:11-13 says, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart'" (NIV).
God knows our future, yeah, because He's God. He knows everything. The tricky part is knowing what to do in order to get to that future. Let me tell you a secret... I'm pretty sure there is no way to ever find that out exactly. One of the benefits (curses to some, but I tend to be a positive thinker) of being human is that we CAN'T see the future! We get to live without a template! With out a stop sign, or boundaries! We get to live without having to worry for one moment that what we do in this world won't be what God wants for us. (within reason... I never think killing someone is what God wants... things like that should be fairly obvious.) We have God's word that will protect us like that rhino horn! If we simply follow God's word, I'm convinced that therein lies the "plan" for our lives.
Matthew 6:25-34 gives a big schpeel (OK. Spell-check just told me that aparently "schpeel is not a word." Thanks, Mom, for teaching me to use "Gammy words" that are not in the English language...), I guess, rather, those verses lay out clearly that we are not to worry about things. Ever. Verse 34 sums it up, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Indeed it does. Isn't it nicer thinking about only having to deal with the little bubble of light we're living in? It certainly makes things seem a lot easier.
But then how do I know what to do with my life? To me, this seems obvious. But some people really struggle with this. Here's what I think it boils down to: Opportunity. I'm so convinced that God does His BEST work by giving people opportunities. Some opportunities are smaller than others, but nevertheless, there they are! Smacking us right upside the face! God's saying, "Hello! Look! Take this way down the fork in the road, because I've spun things to happen so that you will have this opportunity to LIVE!" But sometimes, for whatever reason (fear, doubt, laziness, a veil over our eyes shielding us from clear vision...) we miss these opportunities. You know what? That's OK! God's so cool. He gives us more! And more and more and more! God never stops giving us opportunities! I think it's up to us to be looking for them. To keep our eyes open to SEE these opportunities for what they are.
Remember that God is our heavenly Father. A Father so wants to be proud of his children. When we do things that are good and pleasing to him (whether or not we know that "that's what we're supposed to do with our lives") God smiles! It almost makes me cry thinking about how God looks down on all of His children and probably beams from east to west at how proud he is of us.
God will never think, "You know, actually I gave you those hands so that you could be a dentist. I really didn't plan for you to be a carpenter, and in fact, I'm a little bit disappointed." Never! God gave you hands to use to bring glory to Him and to make him proud! So you decided to be a carpenter? That's great! You're building things, and you're providing for others. And God is so proud of that, and probably placing awesome opportunities for you right where you are. Even if you're not in a dentist office pulling teeth!
I believe that our life goal should be to seize the opportunities that will make God smile!
There's really not much more to it than that.
