What's the difference between making plans and following those plans versus discerning and living into a calling? Or is there even a difference? Is following a calling simply placing a divine stamp of approval on our own plans? (Which just might be the ultimate Christian trump card.)
That's the question I consider in an article I wrote for the current issue of Bible Study Magazine.
If plans are of us, and callings are of God, somehow, then should we even make plans as Christians? Or is this merely an attempt to rule our own life?
What about when things don't go as planned? And what does that mean for what we believe to be God's call on our life?
James & C. S. Lewis: Plans for the Moment
Using James' emphasis on the need to submit, daily, our best-made plans to the Lord's will, I suggest that the tension between our plans and God's will is a common obstacle in Christian conversations about calling.
Rather than understanding either our plans or what we believe to be God's call on our life as a static, lifelong goal, we ought to hold both lightly.
As C. S. Lewis once told a church of Oxford faculty and students on the eve of World War II:
"Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plans somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment 'as to the Lord.'"
I hope you get a chance to check out this month's issue of Bible Study Magazine. If you do, I hope this article is helpful with your own questions on plans and calling.
Peace to you.
-Ryan