“Two weeks earlier I’d been Chase Falson, founding pastor of the largest contemporary evangelical church in New England. My fourteen years in the ministry were a church-growth success story. I’d considered myself one of the privileged few the heavens endowed with a perfectly true compass. I’d known who I was and where I was going, and I’d been certain one day I would see the boxes neatly checked off next to each of my life goals … That world had detonated ten days ago. Gazing down on the terracotta roofs dotting the approaching Tuscan hills, I found myself on a forced leave of absence, and chances were good that when I returned home I would be out of a job.” (excerpt from Chasing Francis, Ian Morgan Cron, pg. 13, 15)
If the boxes of your life goals sit beautifully penned and checked with perfection, this will mean nothing to you. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day.
For me, these would be the words responsible for breaching my internal dam. By the time I was 16, I’d carefully orchestrated my entire life, so beautifully composed you could almost hear angelic voices singing in the background. My compass?
Love God + Live Right = Dreams Come True
Faulty theology. Sometimes you can work overtime to do all the right things and still end up off compass. For longer than I’d care to admit, I’ve been frantically trying to get my neat little list back on track. Now I believe I’ve been using the wrong compass to navigate the wrong list. So, I’ve decided to get comfortable in the mess. Become part of it, search for God in the midst of it, enjoy the people around me, and hold on to all the other agendas LOOSELY.
How about you? Has your life gone according to plan?
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This post was so relevant to where I am in life right now. I had everything for college pretty much planned, Taylor, Music, Scholarships, Majors, dorms – Everything. And that whole list turned upside down in a matter of one letter, whether it be the one that said my family made to much to get any financial aid for taylor, or the one that said I wasn’t good enough for the music program at CSU. It’s so crazy how sometimes we try so hard to have a plan and stick with it, and sometimes it’s just not God’s plan. If I’m learning anything through this process, it’s that sometimes planning too much can make future things harder and rejection killer. Had I not been so set on my “perfect” plan, I wouldn’t have felt like it was the end of the world when I got rejected…. Just a few thoughts. Didn’t realize this was getting so long!! Anyways, great post. Definitely so good for me to look at and re-evaluate. Thank you for sharing!
Ashes, I love reading your comments, how you speak from your heart and share authentically about your journey. Always touches me. Thanks for letting me “in” and for sharing life with me.