Learning to Live with a Living God Part 3: Life Upside Down
A continuation of a series of Learning to Live with a Living God: See Part 1 and Part 2
“This was not what I expected, God.” The words came out of my mouth as I stared at a text message that changed everything. In the course of a week, I went from single to taken, and I was standing in the middle of the whirlwind, wondering what happened to my plans. “This is not the direction we discussed!” I panicked. I had prayed so hard over the direction of this year, and I thought I had cornered what God had for me. I was prepared for all the angles. Except, apparently, this one.
Has this ever been you? I know I’m not the first. Are you staring at an upturned life? Because this is me, I started looking through scriptures for some wisdom on how to process. If you thumb through your bible to Acts 9, I found a guy who had quite a similar story.
“Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace.
For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus. Because I was confident of this, I wanted to visit you first so that you might benefit twice.
I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I fickle when I intended to do this? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say both “Yes, yes” and “No, no”? But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.”
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”- 2 Corinthians 1:12-20
In case you’re wondering, yes, this is the story of the Apostle Paul. He thought he had his plans in order, and then the living God rescheduled him for something better. In Paul’s fist letter to the Corinthian church, he told them that he planned to visit them. Fast forward through the book of Acts, we read that God gives him a vision that sends him the whole opposite direction instead.
Learning to live with a living God means living on His schedule and agenda. Sometimes we talk about needing to realign ourselves with God’s plan for our lives, but sometimes, He realigns us.
That’s what I was experiencing. I knew I was walking obediently in God’s plan for my life, and I thought I had a grasp on where I was headed. Then, bam! God placed a relationship in my life that turned everything on its head. I thought my plans were written in permanent marker, but it turns out, I was using dry erase ink the whole time. I am realizing that I thought if I followed God’s will, He would never surprise me.
But, He is a God of surprises and short notice and perfect timing. I realized that in my temptation to panic, all I needed to do was keep walking in obedience. I was and am realizing, none of my life is my plan. I live on God’s schedule, and He sometimes doesn’t send me a divine appointment reminder alarm.
Every morning, I can get up and plan my day, but He has the calendar in view. I’m reflecting on all of this as I am working on syncing my calendar with the man I am dating. I’m syncing my calendar because I know, if I want to spend time with him, I have to know his schedule. If I didn’t ever ask about his schedule, I would have trouble finding time for him, or we would constantly be having to rearrange colliding plans.
I wonder, am I syncing myself to God’s schedule? Learning to live with a living God means I need to learn His schedule. How do I do that? I’m someone who can become caught up in the details of my actions. I think I keep seeing my life like a sci-fi show, am I ruining my life or stepping wildly out of God's will if I turn left instead of right? What if the lamp falls over?
Ok, maybe the Matrix reference is stretching it. When I say, syncing to God’s scheduling, that’s not the sort of living I picture. It’s learning that God’s will is not complicated, and if we’re obedient to His heart, all of our choices are His will. That’s a lot less stressful, don’t you think? So, what is God’s will?
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”- Mark 12:30-31
If God has recently turned your life upside, and you’re saying goodbye to old plans to take up these new ones, and you’re wondering what happened. God didn’t change His mind, and you aren’t being wishy-washy to have suddenly changed your answer. You’re living on the schedule of a God who uses everything, and who lives with higher thoughts and ways than we do. He doesn’t cater to human tradition and etiquette all the time. He’s executing Kingdom orders, and you’re still a vessel of His plan.
So, you’re staying instead of going. Or you’re packing instead of sinking in. You’re changing jobs. You’re changing countries. You’re changing plans, but in reality, you’re not changing anything. You’ve been living one plan all along. You can take a deep breath, keep walking. He’s got it all figured out.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mia Grace loves sunflowers, words, old hardcover books, and fountain pens. She adores Jesus Christ, and seeks to listen and obey him in her life. Her life verse is Isaiah 52:7, and her prayer is for every girl to grasp the height, weight, depth, width, and power of Christ's love for them.