I've just finished an excellent book. I'll be posting a review in a couple of weeks (delaying at the request of the publisher), and I'll have more to say about it then. Today, though, I want to pull a thought out of the book and examine it.One of the statements made by a major character goes something like this: "You may ask why this happened to you. Why are you here? I maintain that you're exactly where you're supposed to be at this moment in time." At first this seemed like nonsense, but as I examined my life I could see situations where God had placed me in particular situations--situations I might not have chosen for myself--and given me the opportunity to be useful in one way or another.
I just recently had occasion to go through some of my journal entries written after the death of my first wife. One of my constant questions at that time was why she was taken and I was left behind. I still don't have the full answer, but I came to believe that if I had been given another day, or ten, or a hundred, or a thousand, it was a pretty good indication that God had something more for me to do. So I began to open myself to that possibility. In my case, the "something more to do" has turned into a lot of things: writing, speaking, being there in family situations, serving in a new church, encouraging friends.
Tomorrow, try saying to yourself, "This is exactly the place God wants me today. I wonder why?"
Posts
4 comments:
I've heard that before and partly I agree with it. Looking back, we often see how the Lord has placed people and circumstances in our lives that have helped us along the way, even though it didn't seem that way at the time. But it's possible to take it to extremes and when we consider I Kings 19:9, we need to be careful about saying that we are always where God wants us to be. We get sidetracked. I think a better understanding is that God is constantly guiding us back to where he wants us to be.
Thank you so much for the post. It seems so much easier (at least most of the time) to see the purpose of being placed in a particular situation in hindsight. I'm going to try your suggestion and not only wonder why I was placed where I was, but thank God that He mapped out my life for me with wonderful blessings I know are still to come.
Hmmm. I agree almost completely. God is sovereign over every circumstance I can't control, He will work all things for good, and He is with me wherever I wander—so no matter where I am, I need neither strive nor worry about being somewhere else. However, as long as I'm vulnerable to sin, I'm going to step outside the Lord's perfect will for me. I won't be exactly where I should be until the day sin is no longer part of my life.
In the movie The Last Flight Out, Matteo says, "There's no better place to be than in the center of God's will—unless it's in His presence." His will is exactly where I should be.
I have maintained the above to be true but only to the degree that one is a Christian. I don't intentionally exclude the other religions but since I only have a beginner's understanding of them.
My God has placed me precisely where I needed to be at big, pivotal moments. In fact, he has steered me like a boat in a wide channel to the correct slip. I could see his guidance at all stages and often ran with the direction he gave me. Often I recognized his hand and paddled against the intended direction even with a bigger oar and deeper strokes. The course correction wound up being bigger and I ended up in the same place which is "exactly where he wanted me to be".
Now when I hear a new age person or one that is agnostic state the same thesis, I scratch my head in wonder. How can one feel the mildest conviction that he or she is intentionally well placed for something in the vacuum of faith. I admit that non followers are often brought forward later in life with big impact but these aren't people that have or will ever make a big splash.
Post a Comment