What’s in store for you and me? What’s ahead of us in our futures? Which choice should I make? Which option should I pick? These are thoughts that likely run through any given person’s mind fairly often. I know I think about them, probably more than I should. And I decided to write about this today because it’s recently come up in my church community.
Without getting into the specifics of other people’s lives, there are a couple people in my church who don’t really know the details of what’s ahead of them in their lives. It’s likely that a lot of things will be changing for them. To paraphrase, the individuals said, “We don’t really know what we’re going to do next. We don’t really know the plan.”
I spoke to my worship pastor about it after service, and I said, “I think it’s okay to not know the plan. When we know the plan, we tend to get in God’s way and mess it up.” He said I should probably write about that subject, and I at first kind of dismissed it because I wasn’t sure how to tackle the subject, but I heard a song on the way home from church by Avicii that hit me. It’s not even a Christian song, but it had just the words I needed to inspire this:
These are the days we've been waiting for
Neither of us knows what's in storeYou just roll your window down and place your bets
These are the days we won't regret
These are the days we'll never forget!
Think about that for a minute. Really, from the moment you give your life to Christ, you should be waiting for the day He says, “Go, it’s your turn to make disciples. Here’s what you’ll do.” I think that comes in the moment you’ve grown in Christ enough to spread the Gospel, because there is a certain level of spiritual maturity you need to reach for that, in my own opinion.
It’s kind of like how we all grow up. You spent a majority of your younger years being cared for, fed, and nurtured by your parents, ideally, and then, once you’re grown in maturity, you go out on your own. As Christians, we must be fed by the Spirit and nurtured until we are capable of going out and spreading our faith. So, really, you should be spending every moment you are being nurtured by the Spirit preparing and waiting to be sent out into the unknown.
I’ve talked about not knowing what’s in our future before, briefly, when I wrote about Tenth Avenue North’s song, “What You Want.” But I want to expand on the not knowing. I think all throughout the Bible we have examples of all the things that happen when we know God’s plans for us, and very few of them are good. We often end up causing problems for ourselves due to our own unbelief and prejudices.
Moses, for example, when told that God wanted him to free the Israelites by speaking to Pharaoh, was so worried over his own oratory skills that he tried to avoid going through with it. He tried to stop God’s plan because he was worried he couldn’t do it. Jonah tried to run from God because he knew His plan for Nineveh and didn’t think the people could be changed. The Israelites got themselves banished to wander the desert for 40 years because they knew God wanted them to wage war against the peoples in the promised land to uproot them and thought they couldn’t do it.
But when people didn’t know exactly what God had in store for them, they were able to rely on God rather than be discouraged by what they saw in front of them. I think of the disciples shortly after Jesus returned to be with the Father. They didn’t know exactly what they had to do. But they did know which direction they had to go in. Would, perhaps, Peter have been too scared to go to Rome if he knew ahead of time that he would die there? Would Paul have gone to all the places he went if he knew how he would be received?
Perhaps even the most telling story about this is Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his own brothers. Do you think he would have trotted out to them as carefree as he did if he knew what they would do to him? If he knew the pain that would come from it? Even if Joseph knew it was God’s plan for him? I wouldn’t have.
And therein lies the problem: when we know too much, we come up with regrets. We bring up all the things possible we can to convince ourselves that the upsides to our choices will be far less significant than the downsides. Our fear often outweighs our faith and our lives are unbalanced. The more we know about what’s ahead, the more courage we need, and that is something we sadly lack.
To put it in more concrete terms, it’s kind of like asking someone out on a date and being rejected. The first time you go to ask a girl or guy out on a date, it might not be that hard, especially the younger you are. You’re either confident he/she will say yes, or you’re sure you can handle the pain that comes from rejection. Why? Because you don’t know what that feels like yet. But each subsequent time, asking that question becomes harder and harder because you know how much it hurts to be rejected, and you fear that pain. Since you know it hurts, you’re less likely to do it.
But what I urge everyone to do is to not focus on the pain, which is why I think it’s beneficial for us to know less rather than more about what God has in store for our lives. When we hear from older, wiser folks about their lives, it’s not often that we hear about the hurts as they reminisce. It’s far more common for them to retell the good things.
But one thing I’ve noticed as I have matured is that even when you have to tell about the pain in your life on the way to big things, you rarely end up saying you regretted making that decision. In fact, I don’t know anyone who has regretted getting the courage to ask their now wife on a date. I don’t hear anyone say they regret taking the chance on asking their boss for a promotion for all the hard work they’ve been doing when they’ve made it to the manager position. I don’t hear anybody who stepped out into the unknown on the word of God say they wish they’d never done it.
Why? Because they didn’t allow themselves to get in God’s way and mess things up. They didn’t let their fear or pain control their lives. They didn’t let sorrow or shame make their choices. They let courage and faith step out for them.
Do you think Peter regretted walking on water? Do you think he would have regretted it if the rest of the disciples picked on him as Jesus told him he had little faith? No. I’m sure he regretted doubting as he stood on the water, but I know in my heart that he didn’t regret taking the step out of the boat for a single second after all was said and done.
And it’s likely something he remembered doing for the rest of his life. It was something he could share with others thousands of times as he preached the Gospel and showed them who Jesus was and why they needed him. That one small act of faith when he stepped into the unknown, not knowing what would happen, could have impacted thousands of lives. Just like you stepping out in faith when you don’t know what’s in store could do the same for thousands more.
You don’t need to know the plan. In fact, I still say it’s better you don’t. Lean on your faith in the one who’s writing the story, the one who holds your tomorrow, and know that He will work everything together for the good of those who love Him.