Switching Seats

Decades ago there was a bumper sticker which read, "God Is My Co-Pilot."  It seemed like a good message of traveling with God next to you for the support and help needed along the way but it was soon debunked when another one came out with a corrective statement, "If God Is Your Co-Pilot, Switch Seats."

The second sticker rang out with a clarion clear message that having God along for support and help when the going got tough was allowing the wrong one to be in charge of the journey.  In fact, the first bumper sticker suggested being on the wrong journey entirely.

It is patently wrong to think that God's job is a support role in our journey, that we have a path to carve out and we will need God's help as we do it.  It is absolutely foolish to think that we are the one to choose our path and direct our steps, that rightly "I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul" (from "Invictus" by William Ernest Henley).

The idea that I am the captain smacks of an elevation of self to the place of God himself, it is in keeping with the tradition of the original sin in which Eve was tempted to eat of the forbidden fruit by the serpent who hissed these words into hear listening ear, "...when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God..." (Gen 3:2).

A seemingly better focus can be just as misdirected when one wonders,"What is God's plan for my life?"  I hear this all the time and many put it forward in a plaintive way saying, "I wish I knew what God's plan is for my life!"  My life?  A custom-made plan for my individual journey?  Really?

Here's what's wrong with that query: It's not your life and it is not your plan!  "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20).

You can stop wondering what God's plan is for your life and start listening to God as he reveals his plan and his call for you to join in his plan - to follow his path laid out before you, following in the steps of Jesus.  Through Bible study and prayer, his will and his path is laid out before us.  And, like Abram (later named Abraham), we are called to a journey in which God will show us as we follow his lead (cf. Gen 12:1ff).

We may never, in this life, fully see or comprehend that to which God calls us; it may always be just up ahead and out of view.  We may never see some grand plan laid out before us.  But we can see the opportunities to serve, give, help, teach, share, love that are all around us daily.  We can be follower of Jesus each day as we seek to be "salt and light" (Matt 5:13-16) in a dark and flavorless world.

Don't wait for the flight plan as if you were the captain, switch seats and let God have the controls.  Don't wait for a personal chart of your journey, instead daily strive to follow in the steps of the Master "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Col 3:17).  Jus' Say'n.