I'm not sure when I first realized that I'm an extremely impulsive person, but anyone who has spent any significant amount of time around me has probably noticed. I can't say that it's something I'm ashamed of, or even something that "I struggle" with (to throw in some Christianese), because after all, God gave us each a personality and mine happens to incorporate a fondness for the unplanned. I'd like to propose that it isn't oxymoronic to be both an impulsive person and a Christian, as some would have you to believe.
Last spring I got a text message from a good friend who lived on the other side of state with the simple question, "do you want to go to Tennessee in two weeks?" Of course I said yes. And of course we didn't talk about what we would be doing there or make any plans for our time spent there. When I landed in Nashville I just called her up and guess what? She was in Nashville too. It worked out. BUT, certain people from my hometown gave me grief about my last minute trip. Why? Because it looks suspicious and because from a very young age Christians are taught to plan, plan, plan.
The book of Proverbs encourages us to plan, and I couldn't agree with that wisdom more. If we plan our days, they will be more productive. If we make grocery shopping lists, we won't buy cereal and forget milk. If we start saving now for a vacation that we would like to take in two years, that vacation suddenly becomes more feasible. I even like to make lists of goals for certain periods of time. However, there is a certain group within the church that has taken planning to a new level and made a "little g" god out of it. This has happened because of fear, more specifically, the fear that God isn't in control.
A woman in the church I grew up in once tried to talk me out of spending my summer in France(the night before I left) because she was afraid that I would start drinking and smoking weed. Certain authoritative figures in my life for years tried to talk me out of going away to school because they were afraid that I would backslide in my faith. When I announced that I was leaving my small hometown in Northern California to move to Los Angeles (gasp) I was all but delivered into the hands of Satan. This is so discouraging to me. When, as Christians, we fear that we will walk away from God if we are to leave our little nests of comfortability we are questioning the Greatness of God and demonstrating how small our faith really is.
You know what living in Hollywood and going to a secular college has taught me? That God will never, ever let me go, that His hand of provision is forever over my life and that nothing I could ever say or do could ever change the fact that He has saved me. This has been a hard lesson to learn but in the process I have discovered unspeakable joy and freedom. I wish I could go back to all those people who discouraged me from moving here and share with them that God is bigger than their plans. Not because I want to try and prove them wrong, but because I want them to see the freedom that they have in God. We can take risks! We can move away from home and still walk with the Lord! We can move away from home (and not go to Bible College) and even GROW in the Lord! This is great news! And it's Biblical. Take a risk for God. If it's not part of His plan for you, believe me, His is great enough to derail it. It's called LIVING for God, not planning for Him.
"We can make our own plans, but the Lord gives the right answer. People may be right in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their motives. Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.....We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they fall."
Proverbs 16: 1-3, 33
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