Sometimes when I picture my future, I imagine myself in New York City. I’m walking to work somewhere within the labyrinth of office buildings and coffee shops that charge five dollars for a cup. I’ll picture the sidewalks being crowded. People walk fast. That’s what I imagine for myself in the future. Everyone has a dream, have you seen Tangled? Eat, Pray, Love? Tangled? The Pursuit of Happiness? All these movies showcase a person who with a dream and perseveres to attain it. The theme is universal in humanity.
And because the theme is universal, very often we don’t reach the dream we desire. Sometimes I say things like “life doesn’t go the way we planned” or “it wasn’t meant to be.” I don’t want to say things like that anymore. It’s too broad and too generic. I know why things don’t happen according to plan. It’s because they didn’t go according to my plan. My plan is insignificant. My plan is nothing compared to the plans Jesus has for us. I know I’m setting myself up to reference Drake’s new song. Here I go, life goes according to God’s plan and there’s nothing we can do but to pray and have faith in Him.
I bring this up now because I’ve recently been struggling with decisions regarding my future. I’ve been having to wait a lot for other decisions to be made that affect me too. The waiting game is the worst. I feel like I’m stuck in a waiting room at the doctor’s office, meanwhile, I have New York City on my mind and that’s just not in the cards right now. So I read Ephesians 3:20, “Glory to God, who is able to do far beyond all that we could ask or imagine by his power at work within us”.
Everyone has a dream and a plan for achieving it, but wouldn’t you rather go along with what God has in store for you? He’s seen it all, He knows more than us. We are so insignificant compared to His glory. Let’s not lose this perspective. Don’t let yourself be trapped in your own mind, there’s no waiting room. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”
So I want to live in New York when I’m older, I’d even like to live there now, but maybe God has something bigger in store for my life. That’s not to say that I shouldn’t make goals for myself. But, why worry about everything I can’t control. I’ll do my best when the time comes, I’ll study, I’ll practice for the interview, I’ll try really hard to do well and pray too. But whatever happens, happens because it's all God's plan.