God Doesn’t Have a Big Plan for Your Life
Living Faithful, Ordinary, and Obscure
A Good Lie
He was at least twenty years old the year he lead my 6th grade Vacation Bible School group, and I was twelve. But age was just a number, and I was certain that I would grow up and marry that man. Randy was going to Bible college to be a missionary. He loved sharing the gospel. He was passionate about people in other countries who had never heard about Jesus. My twelve-year-old heart was passionate about Randy. God had a big plan for his life and I wanted to be a part of it.
Then he got married to a girl he met at college. I went to their wedding with my family. It was a bit devastating. I might have kept my dessert napkin with their names on it for a few years. She was not really interested in being a missionary, and instead they ended up settling down in a nearby small town and having a few children. I was sure she had ruined God’s big plan. (Not that I ended up being a missionary either.)
“God has a big plan for your life.”
How many times have I heard this phrase from someone older than me trying to encourage me and my peers? And how many times have I used it while being a youth pastor’s wife trying to support and encourage teens to live their lives for God? But what if that phrase is a lie?
What if God doesn’t have a big plan for most of our lives? What if it’s not about becoming a Christian celebrity or influencer? What if it’s not about joining a mission team and working miracles for God?
What if God’s plan for most of us is to live normal, boring, ordinary, obscure lives?
What if His plan is for us to faithfully work a job that we don’t really enjoy? What if it’s to be a stay-at-home mom while the kids are young even when it drives us crazy? What if His plan is singleness? What if it includes suffering and pain? What if there is no big, glamourous plan? Is that okay?
Hard Truth
I’ve met young adults who have joined ministries like YWAM or World Race, who go away for months or years and have amazing, intense spiritual experiences, and then struggle big time to acclimate back into the real world. Why does this happen? Why do many of them come home and walk away from their faith for a while? Why do they struggle to live ordinary lives?
I wrote a couple of other Substack letters and did some podcasts about this. So many of you might know my thoughts about the spiritual and emotional manipulation that happens with young adults and my significant hesitations with the organizations I mentioned. In case you want to catch up, here are my most recent podcasts and also a link to my Substack letter.
It is hard to leave a place that is highly spiritualized and come back into the normal world. It can make us feel guilt and shame when we can’t maintain the spiritual high that we felt when we were surrounded by constant ministry and spiritual elements. But the vast majority of us are called to live normal, boring lives.
Yes, I write, podcast, and speak a little bit. But most of my time is spent working my job, being with my family, and doing necessary chores around the house. I do not have a glamorous life. And that’s okay.
The Candle of Peace
Today is the second Sunday of Advent. If you are celebrating, we will light the Peace Candle—also known as the Bethlehem candle. Jesus was born in a crowded house, in a tiny town, in a small nation. His birth was humble and quiet. He spent around thirty years working a normal job in an obscure town that people laughed at: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”
Jesus never sought fame. He never tried to be an influencer or a celebrity. From outward appearances, God didn’t even have a big plan for His life. He only had twelve disciples. Crowds continually left him. The religious leaders hated him. People constantly misunderstood him. He didn’t even have a home or a family of his own.
And yet, Jesus came to bring peace that passes understanding to everyone who would listen. His ordinary, obscure, faithful life changed the world.
God has plans for each of us; I don’t doubt that at all. But those plans probably aren’t big or fantastic. They are probably kind of boring, and that’s okay!
Let’s seek to be faithful in our everyday, ordinary lives as we walk through this Advent season leading up to Christmas. Let’s do the simple things we’ve been called to do and the ordinary things we have to do in a way that demonstrates our love for God and His love for the world. Let’s bring peace to people as we follow Jesus every day.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts, questions, or comments. You can find me on Threads, Instagram, Facebook, Substack and on my original podcast. I’d love to connect with you on any of these places!
Christy Lynne Wood
I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, a grateful wife, and a mother of two. I love to communicate truth. Nature refreshes me, coffee comforts me, and deep conversations make me feel alive. My greatest recent accomplishment is learning to own house plants without killing them.
4 Comments
tonycutty
I’m a bit puzzled here; was this a reblog? Or just something you wrote in December that got pushed back down the publication queue? I know that happens to my posts a lot, which is why I tend not to put statements in there that date them! Lol.
But this is a wonderful and down-to-earth analysis on one of humanity’s oldest questions. How much does God indeed ‘direct’ our lives?
I too used to think that God has a ‘perfect plan’ for your life. I was ‘saved’ at a tent crusade in which at least one of the songs sung there was actually entitled ‘God has a Perfect Plan for Your Life’, by, I think, one Rob Newey. (He’s an old man now; wonder if he still believes it himself!) And then over the course of deconstruction and reconstruction, I sort of abandoned that view when I realised that no matter whether there’s a plan or not, the main thing is that I am walking with Him. The future will look after itself.
And now, at the age of 63 and having walked with Jesus for 45 years (in fact July 12th 1980 was when I was at that tent crusade), I now believe it’s a lot more subtle than just does He/doesn’t He have a plan. Yes, He does, in many ways. There have been times when I have been unmistakably ‘directed’ into a particular course, most times life-changing, which has then borne good fruit. On the other hand, shit happens, and I wonder how much of that is part of a ‘plan’. I have even had good men of God say things like ‘this [situation] is the place of blessing; anywhere else, there is no blessing’, and I no longer believe that, with all respect to that particular man of God who is sadly gone this past 30 years.
No, it’s a lot more subtle than that. It’s a life of walking with Him, and the direction and ‘plan’ go with that walk, but at a deeper level than just being in the place that God tells you. It’s a plan, but it isn’t a plan. The main thing is that God blesses our walk whichever way we go. Maybe, even, the plan is simply to talk with Him and who cares what actually happens!
Regarding YWAM and other things where people go off and be all ‘spiritual’, well I think that’s all fine and yes it’s a bit of a thud when they come back ‘down to earth’, but the secret in that case is to learn how to apply those spiritual realities into the ‘humdrum’ of everyday life. It’s a change of circumstance, not a change of where we are in God. Again, it’s walking with Him. It’s getting up to feed the baby at oh-shit o’clock in the morning. It’s being reminded of His presence in a glorious sunset. It’s driving the car back home and giving the finger to a local (very intrusively religious) church as you drive past it. Yes, I did that just this morning! It’s just getting on with life, but without forgetting the deep underlying spiritual core from which proceeds all my joy and life. And whether there is, or isn’t, a plan, I trust Him – which really is the bottom line, isn’t it?
Christy Lynne Wood
This was an accidental send via email and I was trying to put old Substack posts on my blog. My website has been sadly neglected since I’m fully invested in Substack these days. So I was working to post one essay from each month from the last year. But twice forgot to click “post only” so they ended up in your inbox. 😆 Sorry about that!
tonycutty
Well to be honest it’s such agreat article that I’m glad you mistakenly shared it again! Blessings all round!! 😀
tonycutty
One other thing is that the ‘plan’ idea is most often used by preachers and ‘youth ministers’ trying to ‘whip up’ enthusiasm in young, impressionable and spiritual people. The truth is that God can indeed give you self-importance, reason for living, and purpose, but without everyone having to be come a Billy Graham. It must be a fine line between trying to cajole people into things that will only lead to disappointment, and yet helping those same people to realise how important they are to God.