Strategic Life Plan

My mind has been in a constant search for a strategic, life plan.  Not a plan that tells me what I’m doing for the next five to ten years, although that would be kinda cool; but a plan that keeps me on track without a derail every fifty miles.  I hear people talk about their prayer lives being so powerful for them.  There are people who share about their daily time with God that starts at 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning and I’m over here thinking, “How do people keep going the rest of the day in a sane state of mind when they wake up that early on a daily basis?”

On a side note, I’m a night owl.  I have been for as long as I can remember.  I’m also someone who needs a solid night of sleep.  If I’m getting eight hours of sleep a night, that’s perfect.  Sure, I have those weeks where I run on four or five hours for about five days, but then I’m trashed for a while until I can get back up on my feet.  I’ll admit, I love mornings…when my sleep starts at 21:00 or 21:30, but to keep that as a daily routine…well, I guess I have a lot of things to work on in my life….

So, when I think about my relationship with God and the amount of time I spend with Him, I get a little sick feeling inside.  I know it’s not where it should be.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy that quality time with Him…reading His Word, praying, journaling…It’s all so refreshing and invigorating for me.

I’ve been hearing a lot of advice on this whole strategic, game plan for life recently and I’m convinced that it’s one of the wisest things we as Christians could do.  Will every strategy look the same?  Absolutely not because we are all different human beings with different weights, temptations, weaknesses, and thought processes.  So, I’ve been brain storming a game plan for my life.

Two weeks ago, I started teaching school again.  I love those high school kids so much.  The energy they have for life and the excitement they bring to my ‘normal’ days is just plain fun.  It’s also tiring at times and that’s why I’m struggling to find a good routine for these days of the week.  It always takes time to adjust to a different schedule and find a routine that works exceptionally well…I’m in that stage right now, but I’m also feeling like I’m failing my Spiritual life miserably.  Thus the continual search for a strategic, life plan.

Devotional time has always been one of my biggest weaknesses.  It bothers me that I can make time for a quick bite to eat before work, but I can’t fit some spiritual food in my schedule.  I should be able to go without physical food before I cut the spiritual filling from His Word.  Let’s also face the facts that I can spend fifteen minutes talking to someone, watching something, or scrolling social media before I go to bed without picking up my Bible to do something even more productive before those precious hours of shut eye.  How is that even just?

This summer I had a job about twenty minutes away from home.  I loved my drive to work because I could talk to God for a solid twenty minutes without an interruption.  (I even had less feelings of hate towards other drivers…I mean, how can you beat that?)  Now I’m back to driving a solid two minutes to school and I hardly have time to say, “Hey God, today I need some energy...”  So, my prayer life needs a little more scheduling these days cause going for a drive isn’t always the best financial way to spend one’s time.

When I say strategy, I don’t just mean scheduling a time for devotions and prayer…I’m also referring to the fact that I need to make a game plan for reading and praying.  This whole “average Christian life” thing is driving me nuts.  There’s no passion involved!  And to call ourselves Christians…I’m just not a fan in people separating radical Christianity from being a Christian.  Either you are a Christian or you aren’t.  If you are one, you’re radical because that’s what the saving grace of Jesus does to your life.  It turns it all upside down.  You aren’t afraid to worship on your knees in front of other people or with your hands raised. You take those three minutes to pray with a stranger in a coffee shop because you felt the Spirit prompting you to do so.  It doesn’t matter if it looks retarded.  You are different.  You aren’t made to fit into the cultural norm.  You love every person you meet because God made them with a story and a value we can’t fully understand.  The love you have for them will compel you to pray that the Father will spare their lives so they can experience His grace before it’s too late.  It’s a different lifestyle than what we are used to.

I’m preaching to myself because I have a lot to learn and grown in…Overcoming my natural tendency to want to please people with a loving boldness to do what the Father is leading me to do.  Looking the same as people around me and yet, not being afraid to live differently.  Our cultures scream, “Blend in.”  While at the same time they raise up people who are different in some areas of life.

I had this thought the other day while I was driving, so I wrote it on my gas receipt.

“I want my life to make other people question their relationship with God in the aspect that He means so much to me that they question whether or not He means that much to them.”

It comes from a quote I read somewhere along the line…but as a Christian, isn’t that how it should be?  I’m convinced it’s attainable.  I’ve been with people who have made me feel a little bit uncomfortable because I knew my relationship with God isn’t where it should be.  It wasn’t that they were degrading or lifting themselves up, they were just living their normal, every day lives…sharing the love of Jesus through conversations with strangers in gas stations, taking the plunge into deep, personal, honest conversations in a blink of an eye, and worshipping God anywhere at any time.  Talk about a challenging person. 

I really believe that the only way the world is going to be reached is through our everyday lives being different and visible to everyone around us.

Do I have a plan that is pushing me to do that?  Is what I’m reading going past my eyes and to my heart?  Or is it just a daily ritual to make me feel better about myself?  Is my prayer life existent?  Is it an actual conversation with the Creator of the entire universe?  Or is it a bunch of quick, desperate requests about my packed schedule?  Does my weekly schedule have time to just sit and breathe a little?  Is that time a priority and is that time spent in a beneficial way?  What am I doing to keep everything in its rightful place?  How many questions am I going to keep asking myself??

I’m currently working on coming up with a solid game plan, but I believe that the family of Believers is here to help each other out.  So, if you are one of those people with a game plan, I ask you to share some of your wisdom with me…Maybe it’s things that haven’t work.  Maybe it’s things that have been super beneficial.  Maybe you’ve never heard of a Believer’s strategic, game plan for life, but you have some ideas that might work…Hey, I’m willing to see if they work. 😊 There’s nothing like learning from each other and I’m a fan of learning from other people’s experiences.

Here’s to this week taking my relationship with Him deeper.  I’ll be honest, I am scared to say that sometimes because I’ve prayed that God will take me deeper with Him and then I find myself in some deep waters trying to swim to the top just for a breath.  The thing is, I never look back on those times and say, “I wish that wouldn’t have happened.”  The only way I’m really going to go deeper with Him is by completely abandoning my life, dreams, and ideas.  It really changes everything.