The next few months are a little up in the air for Steph and I as hopefully (fingers crossed) I’ll be graduating from seminary, and we’ll be moving on to a new place. It’s a really intense time, questioning where we should go, how to know, whether a place will be the right place, and seeking “God’s plan for our life.”
This has led me to think deeply on this point...does God really have everything planned out?
At some level everybody asks this question. Is everything already decided? Is there a perfect path that we need to be looking for? Is God guiding me through life towards a specific destination, with well-defined life goals? If the answer to any of these is yes, my next question is how can we know?
I’d like to take a quick look at 3 Bible passages: Jeremiah 29, Genesis 2, and Matthew 15.
- Jeremiah 29.11 –
How do we respond to Jeremiah 29.11? This seems to be the life verse of the American Church right now, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to hurt you." God has plans for my life! I must find them! It's really easy to buy into this way of thinking...anything good that happens to me - and anything bad - that happens to me can be attributed to God. Either he is blessing me or attempting to teach me a lesson.
Personally, I have a problem with thinking God has my life specifically planned out. I just don't think this is a proper view of reality. The word in the original language has connotations not of planning but of wishful thoughts. Maybe we should understand Jeremiah to talk about the desires God has for our future. Maybe we should understand God is thinking about us!
So maybe these “plans” that so many people have for Christians are really not plans but God has desires for us. But does this take away from God’s sense of control of the world? Does God not have the path for the world planned out? Possible this could be a scary situation for me to be in…
- On to Genesis 2 -
If you read the book of Genesis you'll notice that there are two creation stories. The first, in chapter 1, is a creation poem dealing with the order of creation. Not order as in the way in which it was created, but order as in priority and significance. This passage comes to a climax at the creation of humanity. (Christians often see this as the only creation story, and some like Ken Hamm actually do awful things, methodically speaking, to the text.)
Chapter two has a different view of creation. If you look closely you’ll notice that in this story, the man is created first, and everything else is created around him. Then God has the man name everything. It is almost as if God is saying, ok I’ve created it, what are you going to do with this? The Creator (not the capitol C) has created a creator (note the little C).
If this is the case, being creative about life is our main goal. God doesn’t have a set plan; he has given us life and breath, and is not eagerly waiting for us to do the same. We shouldn’t be sitting around waiting for approval or for a sign on what we’re supposed to be doing, we’re supposed to be creative!
This seems to be the big problem with the tower of Babel. The people have used their creativity in an evil manor. They have created the brick, and now wish to use it in order to make themselves like God. They set about to build this massive tower, which would stretch to the heavens. (Quick Tangent: Isn’t this what we’ve done with everything we’ve ever created? Look at Atomic energy - height of our creative power, the ability to create energy from splitting atoms – we’ve created the biggest, most deadly, and most powerful bombs ever!) The problem with humanity is we’ve missed God’s plans for the world, and have used our natural instinct to create to do evil.
- Next Matthew 15 -
Matthew 15 is one of the hardest passages in the New Testament for Christians to read, primarily because here we find Jesus actually calling a woman a female dog (Do I need to spell this out?). That’s hard for people to take. Here is Jesus - the personification of love, who died for the world - calling this woman a b!^$#. Perhaps Matthew would not just haphazardly place this in here, but is doing it to make a point.
The situation is that this woman is crying out to Jesus for help. The language that she uses resembles that of a Psalm of Lament: “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.” Now one would expect Jesus to respond, but he doesn’t. Instead we see his disciples respond by saying, “Send her away!” There is no sympathy in their voices; they are annoyed that she is slowing them down. It is here that Jesus says he cannot help her because she’s not a Jew and then when she persists he calls her a dog. It is when she persists that Jesus turns around and heals her. This is a tough situation, here is Jesus not only refusing to heal somebody on the basis of race, but then he uses a slur! What’s going on here?!? This all seems so harsh. It seems to contradict the whole nature of Jesus mission. But maybe that’s the point!
The question we should be asking is why doesn’t Jesus seem to answer the woman first? She talks to him, but the disciples are the ones to answer, and when they do answer they answer harshly and sharply. Perhaps the reason Jesus does not reply is because he is waiting for his disciples to reply. Perhaps his response is not the for woman’s benefit, but for the benefit of the ones he is teaching. To read the text with this viewpoint, one must change his or her viewpoint on the entire program.
Matthew 15 begins with Jesus saying that one is not made unclean by putting something in your mouth, but by that which comes out of your mouth. It’s not the food you eat, but the words you use. This is literally right before Jesus encounter with this woman. Now, this would only make sense if Jesus is being sarcastic, trying to show his disciples just how ugly their words are. This would mean that he was trying to get his disciples to see they need to see the humanity in everybody even those whom they see as dogs.
The point of this passage is to point out the way we respond. The disciples were annoyed because this person was messing up their plan and their schedule. Plus, it wasn’t up to them to deal with this woman; it was Jesus responsibility. Perhaps Jesus didn’t respond to the woman is because his disciples didn’t respond. Maybe if they had say the need and responded by bringing her to Jesus he would have healed her on the spot! The onus is on the disciples!
Jesus plan for his disciples is that they be truly clean, that the things which come out of their mouths would be a good thing. He wants them to see the world like he sees the world.
- So What! -
All three of these passages seem to indicate that God is waiting for us to act. Too often it is the other way around; we wait for God. Perhaps the reason why so many Christians are disappointed with the life that has been laid before them is because they’re still waiting for God to work. Perhaps the reason God isn’t working in our midst is because we’re doing nothing.
So does God have a plan for my life? I guess I don’t believe that. But this doesn’t mean he isn’t interested, he doesn’t care, or that he has left us alone. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, God is with us. He is concerned for our lives. He is wanting good for us. How should we respond to this? Perhaps we should respond by looking at ourselves, our environment, and our situation and attempt to bring the kingdom to that situation.
I don’t think that this is implying, like the open theists suggest, that God does not know the future. Nor does this imply that God, has no plans, designs, wishes and wants for the world, like the deists believe. This is a wholly interested, wholly engaged God; a God that has created a creative creation; God that dreams about us; a God that has placed his followers in the world in order that they might bring his mercy and justice to those who need it.
What do you think?