I want to see the blueprints

photo by todd ehlers

My year listening to God

I wish sometimes that God would give me a peek at the plans to my life so I could know what's going on. God said these words to the Israelites in Exodus 26:30, "Set up the tabernacle according to the plan shown you on the mountain."

I would positively enjoy knowing the plans. My friend, Dave used to tell me tounge-in-cheek, "I asked the Lord to just let me see the blueprints for my life...but He hasn't done it yet." With a laugh and a snort, we chuckle about our situations in life. But always confident that God would lead us each day.

photo by joe thorn

I reflected on my reading this morning as I waited for a friend at Caribou Coffee (great decaf daybreak morning blend). Jared enlightened me to consider that I may not want to know what lies ahead. That's true, too. If I could foresee tragic circumstances ahead, then I may react differently and interact with others inauthentically. So, I must deal with life as it comes and engage life abundantly.

I wonder if you feel the same ambivalence in life. I wonder if you'd like to see the plans for your life or would you rather experience life and discover the plans as you go. I prefer to know the plans to avoid the pains of life, yet if I am privy to the pains that I am going to experience, then I'd feel more miserable. Thus, my ambivalence stands.

Nevertheless, you can experience God in a real, passionate way like me. I can ask questions and have no direct or apparent answers. Yet God reveals His ways to me as I pursue Him through reading the Bible and praying to Him. I see it as a two-way dialogue; God speaks to me from the Bible and I speak to Him in prayer (sometimes if I am quiet, God even impresses things in my mind as I live my life--another way God speaks to me). So, you can engage God everyday. I find it so adventuresome. I wouldn't trade it for anything.