“My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” {Isaiah 55:8}
Everyday we are faced with choices. Some are fairly simple; others can present themselves as life altering. One thing that I have had to learn through this year is that who you allow to make the choices that present themselves determine who you are. A little over two years ago I was deciding where I was supposed to go to school. I wanted to go to the big schools, the ones that all my high school friends were going to. I had set the course for my life and I had convinced myself that I wouldn’t be happier any other way. Oh how humbling it is when God finally knocks you off of your high horse and you recognize you can’t get back up without his gracious help! God began working on me then and teaching me how to rely on his perfect will for my life.
Are there still times when I want to make a decision based on what my selfish nature desires? Absolutely. Some may be able to grasp this concept of allowing God’s will to prevail in every situation fairly easily, but, admittedly, I know that this will be a lifelong lesson that I will have to learn. Yet how sweet it is to think that God knew this about me before he even created the world. He knew that sometimes he would have to teach me something more than once and that somedays he might need an extra dose of patience when working with me. I am awed by the fact that he considered it all worth it in the end.
This school year has been especially challenging in that I had to come to the realization that it wasn’t going to be the same as last year. I came in to this year with my own agenda and was determined that I would get what I wanted when I wanted it. Thankfully God continued to show me that I am not in control. Of course this had to happen a few times; like I said earlier, it’s a lifelong process for me.
Yet what I love the most about this lesson is that when I look back on when I relinquished what I was clinging onto so tightly over to God, I realize that I would have been so foolish to carry through with my choices. As my parents have told me numerous times before, I would have been settling for the second best when God desires to give us the absolute best. We just have to be willing to allow him to fulfill his pleasing, and perfect, will through us. May we begin to see that God’s script for our life story is a masterpiece compared to our rudimentary attempts. May we begin to let go and let God.