Arrogance in Planning

My life has had a lot of changes in the last month or two. I got married, moved out of my parents' house, and started attending a different church (congregation) with my new wife. These changes were either not how I saw my life going or happened sooner than I thought they would, but they were the will of God. That's a little bold to say, isn't it? Whenever someone claims that something is the will of God, it can strike us as kind of hokey, or even arrogant, but I can say with confidence that something that has already happened in my life was just that. In fact, it is arrogant of me to talk about my future with certainty, thinking I control it.

We find evidence of this in James 4:13-16. Verse 13 sets up the situation many (all) of us put ourselves in, making a plan to do something tomorrow, or even today. I am sure I have already done this today, and I'm sure you have as well. In fact, this morning I woke up and said "I'm going to drive my wife to work, then sit at a coffee shop and blog, read, and write some poems. Later we'll go to the beach with her family." So far, this is actually working out for me, but verse 14 reminds us that we cannot have confidence in that because we don't know what the day will bring.

Think on this a bit. How many times have we made plans and knew everything that would happen that day without a doubt? Never. How many times have we made plans that never came to fruition because something outside of our control affected them? This verse is backed not only by our belief that the Bible is infallible, but by common, empirical evidence. Humans do not control everything in the world, and they cannot. My plans are not the be-all and end-all of the universe and I should not hold them as such. Countless events could have happened this morning to keep me from driving my wife to work and writing this blog in a coffee shop that my plans had no control over. For my life is short and insignificant compared to time as a whole; it holds no power over the world.

At this point, if anyone here says "well it is unwise to plan then" should continue reading James 4, for this is not the point nor the end-goal of this passage. The reader will notice that the correct and right way to plan is given in verse 15 and it still very much contains planning, but in humility. It is alright and good to make plans and goals, but with the understanding that God is Lord and is in control. My attitude this morning should not have been one of confidence that I would be able to drive my wife to work and come to a coffee shop, but one of humbly knowing that my plan may not come to be the way I envisioned it because I am not in control.

Here are the implications of this verse and attitude: nothing happens in our lives apart from God's will. There may be some friction between the reader and this statement, so let me try and sand it down, although I don't believe this will ever be an easy pill to swallow. I'll start with a question: why would the correct attitude be to say "if the Lord wills" if he is not 100% in control? Then he would be helpless to affect our plans like us, and we could not leave them up to his will. It would not be correct to say "if the Lord wills" because there are forces beyond his control that might upset not only our plans, but his will. So if he was not sovereign (in control), we could not say "if the Lord wills" but rather "if it just so happens." Here, an objector could say that he does not will everything, but allows some things to happen. Does this language not imply things happen outside his will? But this is not what the divinely inspired James writes. I see no way calling the statement "if the Lord wills" correct leaves room for God to not be sovereign over all or for him to simply allow something to happen outside of his will. If it happens, it is God's will.

This opens a whole new mess of why we suffer or experience pain. Why do we get cancer* or get into horrible car wrecks inside of God's will? To be honest, we will not perfectly understand here on Earth, but many wise people have written about just this if you are seeking a better understanding. What we can know is that God is good (Psalm 100:5), is working everything for our good (Romans 8:28), and is sovereign (Proverbs 19:21). We can also know that making plans with confidence is foolish and arrogant, because we are not in control like God is.

When my bride and I wed, when we signed the lease of our apartment, when I left the congregation I attended for our new one, I could be confident it was God's will for my life. The Bible teaches that nothing could happen outside of his good and perfect will and I can be happy knowing we acted inside of his will, as these decisions were not sin. So as we grow to be more like Christ in our Christian walk, we should ask him to humble us in our plan making. We should strive to not speak of plans as if they were in our control, but rather desires subject to change. God is Lord of all and his will will be enacted in our lives, through or despite our plans.




* This link is to a blog that was written by my late father-in-law during his battle with cancer. I highly recommend reading the whole thing if you are struggling with the question of "why?"

Personal Story: God Holding Me Secure

I've struggled for a long time with fairly crippling sadness and self-loathing. I can't say this is "depression" as I have never gone to get it checked out, but it is something I have experienced for a long time, fading in and out as it sees fit. Saturday night I had one of these experiences that flowed into Sunday. I was supposed to hang out with my fiance, but she was working on a project the whole time. I blamed it on that. But as it progressed I realized more and more this was simply a trigger. I started to feel worthless, unnecessary, and desired nothing more than to sleep and wallow. Even the next morning, I found it hard to get out of bed and at church couldn't help: I still longed for my bed or couch to simply lie there with no real purpose.

My loving fiance, being the great encouragement she is, reminded me I should read my Bible and spend time with God. This was obviously not what I wanted to do so I resisted, but it did remind me of something I tweeted just the day before.

This was meant as simply a general reminder, but oh how it spoke to me then! The link points to these verses: "Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." (Colossians 2:6-7 ESV) Well you can imagine I felt incredibly silly knowing I had just attempted to encourage my few Twitter followers to find their comfort and foundation in Christ and here I was wallowing and letting myself feel worthless for no reason. But here in Colossians, I was reminded to keep Christ as my root and base so I could be secure in the sturdiest of foundations, not wavering with slight upsets but overflowing with praise for him.

The rest of the night God used to plant my feet firmly back in his grace and love. The youth group I am blessed to help at had a big event. I got to see a number of students who are serious about Christ worship and serve him to create this opportunity for our pastor Bill to rightly share the Gospel with many new faces. The Father put me right in the middle of a dire situation for a student, not to prove myself or make me look good, but to remind me and those involved that he is deserving of glory and he has not left us on Earth by accident. I was reminded of one of my favorite verses, which God has used countless times to pull me out of this sense of worthlessness and purposelessness to a right knowledge of his calling and decision to use me specifically. It reads "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10 ESV) Paul, in his letter to Ephesus, just finishes famously explaining that we are saved by God's grace through our faith, which itself is a gift from him. Immediately after, here in verse 10, he explains that God saved and made us new creations to do good things for God and his Kingdom. However, these are not a general calling, but specific things that he prepared already. I was not saved from my sinful nature to simply die and go to be with God one day. I was not saved to, in general, work for God wherever I happen to find the opportunity. I was saved for specific, planned events that God designed for me, Garrett DeMeyer, to do for his glory. Helping that student through a rough patch Sunday night was not something that was an accident or an after thought: Before time began, God planned for me to be there, help him, and to bring God glory in it all.

If you are a Christian, this is true of you too. Or if you ever realize you are a slave to sin (like the rest of us) and can only reach God and true joy through Christ Jesus, knowing he loved you enough to die and to three days later rise again, paying for your sins so you could have a relationship with the Father, this will be true of you as well. Everyone who puts this trust in Jesus' sacrifice has good works planned out for them by God. Do not dare to say you don't have a purpose, do not dare to let the stones cry out in praise instead, when this is true of you, Christian.

Let's Kick It, Kids

Let me start by saying I am super excited for this summer. Let me continue by saying "hey. What's up? Thanks for reading this blog post, btw. You're killer."

So you may be thinking "Garrett, you're so web2.0 with this blogger account. But why are you doing it?"
Good question. To which I say "Friend, I want you to be able to keep track of me this summer while I'm out and about with Move (ciy.com/move) and know everything God is doing in and through me. It'll be a stellar ride, and I wish you could be here with me, but this trendy little blog will have to do." You'll end up noticing that I will post things I learn, things I do, things I see others do, things about God.

To start, I'd like to explain the title of this blog. I was going to do something catchy and witty like "Garrett on the Move." (Get it, because the name of the events I'll be helping with is "Move??") But I just read this passage from a little book named Luke about Jesus' triumphant entry, as the ESV titles put it, in verses 28-40. Jesus responded to some Pharisees' criticism of his followers praising God by saying "I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out."
That freaked me out a little. That's how awesome God is and how worthy of praise he is. Intimate objects will sing his praise if we don't. But I don't want to let that happen! I want to praise God and not need those stones to speak at all. That's my plan for the summer, folks. I want to give God the glory he deserves with how I live, speak, everything I do, all of it and me.


So let's kick it, kids. Don't let the stones speak.