"Traveling the Routes of Life..."

“Transiting Life According to My Way or God’s Way”

All of the following is to say that for most, it is easier to have a healthier expectation of a local transit system than to have a healthy expectation of God and His ways.

THE EXAMPLE OF THE TRANSIT BUS:  When was the last time you went to catch a bus and did one or more of the following?

Demand that the bus be there waiting when you arrived at the stop in order to avoid inconvenience.

Demand that the bus arrive in order to avoid unpleasant weather or a bad situation.

Demand that the bus stop be situated where it was most convenient.

Demand that the bus arrive on your schedule and/or according to your plan no matter the effect on others.

Demand that the bus travel on routes that are pleasant.

Of course this is most ludicrous.  The transit system plan insures that the bus arrives according to a schedule designed to fit with a greater plan?  Perhaps it is traffic volume, a city’s traffic flow pattern, the number of riders, where and when those riders typically travel, high use facilities such as shopping malls, etc.

BEFORE WE BEGIN:  Before continuing be clear about one very important thing.  God is not the prisoner of His own good ideas and thus He is free to interrupt our expectations of Him according to His good pleasure.  He is to be trusted beyond our understanding and we must be willing to accept His interruptions whether they be quiet or dramatic!  He is the great healer, the provider, the One who blesses, the destroyer of spiritual strongholds, the one who commissions signs and wonders, and the One we call on to be against the evil one and his kingdom of darkness.  However, there is a problem and we need to think about it in terms of man's limitations!

CONCERN - MAN’S LIMITED VIEW:  As one does not expect the bus to be there according to one’s personal plans, pleasures, purposes or agendas, so too one does well not place those expectations and others like them upon God and His interventions in the lives of His followers.  Consider the following.

God's Love?  Most certainly God does love each and every person.  However, such love is expressed in ways one may not understand.  The example is that of a parent who expresses love in a way that may not be understood or accepted by the child.  

Consider as well the matter of what God likes.  He may love everyone but that does not mean that He likes everyone.  To be in the favor or the "like" relationship with God means that one seek to live a life which is pleasing to the Heavenly Father (More about this in a later post).

Man's View:  Remember man’s view is limited by many factors.  To suppose that any one person has the grand plan is to suggest that the finite fully understand the Infinite.

Man's Supposition:  As one makes way through life, it is to say the least naive to suppose one knows the best course to follow and/or the best course of action.  From my Navy days consider the following.  Imagine a ship transiting the entrance to a sea port without soundings, navigational aids, navigational charts, and/or a channel master.  God is the ultimate Channel Master who knows best the channel in which His follower’s lives are to flow individually and corporately.

God's Timing:  Consider too that to demand God to be there upon one’s own schedule is very often to limit one’s view of God's intervention.  

When one enjoys the event we call a Divine encounter, most often it is best experienced when God shows up or intervenes in one's life in an unexpected manner at an unexpected moment.

MAN A GOD? A SUBTLE TRAP:  Consider this question.  Do you recognize these words, “…You will be like God?”  Yes, from the earliest records of mankind in the Garden of Eden, it was all about man placing himself in God’s position.  That which was once presented as a temptation now has become ingrained in man’s depraved thinking and the ultimate expression of the “self.”  

Whether tacitly or directly stated such insidious thoughts often becomes a part of one’s mental content and process.     Unfortunately such cannot be limited to those outside of the Church for it has made inroads into those of faith.  It all sounds so good, designer god on my terms at my time. 

RESPONSIBLE SURRENDER:  It is far better to surrender indeed commit to and live out the words, “Not my will but Thine be done.” Immediately some will counter that it is some kind of “Christian Fatalism.”  That is to say they counter with the criticism that such commitment means; “I am absolved of any and all responsibility when I pray, ‘Not my will but Thine be done’.”  Not so!

Join me back in my Navy days for another illustration.  In order for a ship to have steering, it must be underway.  In other words, a ship dead in the water and unanchored is at the mercy of current and tide.  Such is also true of the Christian. 

In order for the “Thy will not mine” to work one must go forward in one’s faith.  However, one must also be willing for such plans and purposes as are in place to be interrupted.  Neither does it serves God’s purposes to be unwilling to go in ways found to be inconvenient—God’s way is always comforting and confidence building but often found to be not convenient.

All of the preceding is to say that for most, it is easier to have a healthier expectation of a local transit system than to have a healthy expectation of God and His ways.

THE CHALLENGE:  Trust in the Lord and do not give in to the propensity to try to figure it all out for such is always limited by our finite perspective.  Leave such to the side and God will lead in the path in which one should go, the path that lines up perfectly with His Kingdom plan.