I have a confession….
Growing up I was told not just by my parents, but all adults that I had to work hard in school, go to college, and get a job/career. This would follow with a nice little all American family with a golden retriever running around in the white picket fenced yard. Honestly, I have never felt like that was what my life was going to look like. I had no idea what I wanted to major in in college so I just picked something. I have never been able to picture what career I might have or what I could see myself doing for the next 60 years. Never.
I have always worried about that. I’ve told myself…you are 22…a college graduate..you need to figure it out. Well… I think I have. I have always had a passion for travel…to see this giant world God create for us. Somehow that seemed far stretched to me. I’ve researched careers that would give me that ability and none seemed to spark my interest. I had began to think that I was going to live at home with my parents and work a job that I hated for the next 60 years.
Andy, my worship leader at church said something a while back that I swear will be stuck with me forever, he said, “God doesn’t give you a desire that he doesn’t also desire for you.” That made me feel a little better about having these crazy thoughts of travel in my head and heart.
I recently started reading a book called Radical by David Platt. This book is amazing so far, I recommend it. Today made me realize that I am not crazy for not desiring the American Dream, that the American Dream is not what God wants or has called me to do, any of us really. David Platt says,
The believe they were created for more than a Christian spin on the American Dream. They believe the purpose of they lives is deeper than having a nice job, raising a decent family, living a comfortable life, and tackling church attendance onto the end of it. They believe Jesus has called them to a much higher plane and given them a much greater dream. They believe God has shown them great grace in order that he might use them to accomplish the glorious, global, God time, and they don’t want to settle for anything less than radical abandonment to that purpose.
Platt goes on to say that it is evident in the Bible that we ( meaning all of us) were created for the sole purpose of sharing God and his love and grace with the world. All of us. We have changed and modified the Bible to what we want it to be. Platt says, ” We take Jesus command in Matthew 28 to make disciples of all nations, and we say, ‘That means other people.’ But we look at jesus command in Matthew 11:28 , ‘Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,’ and we say, “Now that means me.” We change the words and commandments of the Bible to fit our lives and what we want for ourselves. We all need to stop and think…What does God want for my life. What can I do for God, the answer is simple….Spread his name throughout the earth.
After I read this it clicked in my head, my outlook on life is not crazy, it is God given. God laid the ground work for His plans for me in my head with wanting to travel. It wasn’t until later that he revealed why. God has had this plan for me far longer than I have had it for myself. Which just goes to show that God is great yesterday, today, and forever.
