Conforming with God's Will or Splitzies?

Another week gone by without blogging from me is- again- an indication I have either succumb to paper writing or am participating in actual human interaction. Whereas last week or two ago it was the latter, I am happy to say this time it was the former and I am DONE with my FIRST YEAR of grad school!

One down...let's hope not TOO many left to go!

I am trying to get the degree done ASAP and that's no lie. But sometimes, God throws things at us. You can wait and wait for something and then suddenly there's a quick change and God seems to ask you, "is THIS what you were waiting for? Here it is!"

I'm not speaking too much in my own experience right now. I will still probably be waiting a while to finish grad school. Don't think He's going to magically hand me a diploma anytime soon for 1.) God isn't magic for 2.) God isn't magic.

But I'm thinking mostly right now about my friend who I mentioned in a previous post who has been waiting for God's will in terms of children. She just found out a birthmother has picked her and her husband as the adoptive parents! My friend will be a MOM this Mother's Day!!

I cannot think of a more beautiful thing or more deserving people.

Waiting for what seemed like forever is now perfect- a month after they returned from Lourdes and a few days before Mother's Day.

It gives you HOPE, huh?

My spiritual director and I met after a couple months hiatus and I feel like a broken record just like I do on this blog sometimes. I'm like, "Father, just tell me what to do!"

"That's not how this works," he seems to tell me.

(And in the spirit of this clip that I'm obsessed with, I want to respond, "okay. But, splitzies?" ;)

We really focused AGAIN on discerning God's Will (you think I would be AH-mazing at that by now!) And recognizing that God doesn't hand us things on a silver platter. Sometimes He does and we all wish He would often, but a mature relationship in God is a partnership. He works on us and takes His time so that His will and our Will will be one.

I don't exactly like to think of conforming to God's Will because I'm a non-conformity kind of gal. Hearing about God working on us so that His Will and our Will will be one makes me think that He's like Wayne from Wayne's World or something: "It will be mine, oh yes, it will be mine"
(see above pic- I couldnt get Picasa/Blogger to work with me today. "Zang!" And I will submit that Wayne's World is one of the most quotable movies next to Mean Girls)

I mean, God doesn't think of us like that, right? We are not Excalibur?!

It hit me today in thinking about the beautiful things that are happening for a lot of people in my life right now, it does seem to be a lot about time and attitude. It's like, God gives us this preparation time and then He just opens up the possibilities and says, "you want it? you got it." And some of us jump at the chance. Others want to make sure it is right. And still others hesitate and let things pass us by.

Why does God give us the will to choose in the first place? Again, why doesn't He just hand us everything we need to know? When I was on NET, I gave a talk about Choosing Christ and opening our hearts up to Him. The line we would use to explain free will was to think about if you had a love potion you could give to whomever you would want to fall in love with you. It would feel good to have that person in love with you- for maybe like a day- but would you feel 100% knowing that you forced that person to love you with the potion? That they didn't choose you?

God gives us free will so that we have some power to choose and make things all the more meaningful. And yet, many of us wait around for things to fall out of the sky. And some of us try to control EVERYTHING. There has to be a balance between God's plan for us and ours, and this is where the conformity comes in, I guess. Ultimately, God's plan wins out if we let it. Because His plan is what is best for us. He can even work with our plans if we choose our own instead of His at times and go off track. He can use our mistakes and does. But He can't force us to do anything. That would be like doing magic or having a love potion and we've already established that these are not things that God does ;)

Though sometimes I know we really wish He would! I am wondering of late if God's Will could work a little like "The Think System". Ya, know- from the Music Man? If you think it, you can play it?

Is that also like the same thing that Oprah was pushing with the Secret? Do things really work like that?

Or is it about the NOT thinking so much and surrendering? I think it is a little of both.

God tells us over and over in the Bible, "If you ask, it will be given to you." But it has to be of our truly free will, and this is where we falter. We have our hidden motivations and timeframes. If we ask, we have to be willing to receive. And sometimes that doesn't always come in our time, in our way. He prepares us so we can know what to ask and to receive all the more fully and beautifully.

Congrats, G! I love you and am so happy for you!

Here's hoping we can see how beautiful God's plans are for each of us.




Peace,
Julia