Of course, like nearly everything there is another side. This comes from a book by Mark Batterson, lead pastor of National Community Church in Washington D.C.:
“The longer I live the more I think that spiritual maturity is less about figuring out the future and more about a moment-by-moment sensitivity to the Spirit of God. I’m not saying we shouldn’t make plans. But you might want to use a pencil with an eraser and have a shredder handy . . . Most of you never would have guessed ten years ago that you’d be doing what you’re doing or living where you’re living. And while you may have plans for the future, you have no idea what life will look like ten years from now. But that’s okay. I just don’t think spiritual maturity results in higher degrees of predictability . . . I believe in planning. I believe in goal setting. But there are some things in life you can’t plan or predict. And that drives the obsessive compulsive part of us crazy. We want control, but the decision to follow Christ is a relinquishment of control. Following Christ is letting Jesus take the wheel. Of course, some of us act like backseat drivers. Or worse yet, we’re like little kids that make their parents crazy by asking one question over and over again: Are we there yet?
I honestly think that question reveals something genetically wired into the human psyche. It comes standard. And while we may stop pestering our parents, we never outgrow the desire to know exactly where we’re headed and exactly when we’ll get there. We want a complete itinerary with everything mapped out.
What I’m trying to say in a nice way is this: We’re control freaks. But faith involves a loss of control. And with the loss of control comes the loss of certainty. You never know when a five-hundred-pound lion may cross your path. And faith is the willingness and readiness to embrace those uncertainties” (86-87).
Quotation from:
Batterson, Mark. In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars. Sisters: Multnomah, 2006. Print.
Building Block #4: God is using our circumstances to position and prepare us to accomplish his vision for your life.