i don’t talk about the bible much on here. there are thousands of other blogs on the internet that you can read to learn more about the bible. i’ve always felt that this blog was more about growing up and learning from experiences than it was about teaching the bible. however, lately i’ve been reading through 1 samuel and 2 samuel and all of that good stuff. i had the idea to do a theme week about what i’ve learned from david (the king, not my closet redneck former roommate). hopefully you’ll enjoy reading it as much as i’m enjoying writing it.

christians have one very bad habit universally. well, we have more than one but one that i’m focusing on right now. no matter where you are, how old you are, or even if you’re not a christian, i guarantee you that you’ve experienced this bad habit. who knows, maybe you’re the christian that has actually committed this bad habit.

we like to blame decisions that might hurt other people on god.

i don’t know how many times i’ve heard the story of the couple breaking off a serious relationship because one of them says “god doesn’t want us to be together anymore.” or maybe they use the even more cliche’d “it isn’t god’s will for us to be together right now.” yes, i know that sometimes that’s a legitimate reason, but more often than not, one person just decides they don’t want to work for the relationship or that they want out for the sake of wanting out.

they blame god for hurting someone instead of taking the blame for their own selfish decision.

let me take this one step further. everyone either knows someone who has been killed by a drunk driver or knows of someone who has been killed by the drunk driver. in the aftermath, during the grieving process, i guarantee that some “super-christian” tried to comfort someone by saying “this was all part of god’s plan.”

and i think that god’s plan is for me to punch that super-christian right in the face.

my next statement has the potential to be controversial. you’re either going to completely agree with it or you’re going to be thinking, “how can he say that? that’s so wrong.” before you decide to lynch me and say i’m going to hell, or before you decide to close this and quit reading, at least give me a chance to explain what i’m talking about.

not everything that happens in life is part of god’s plan.

in 1 samuel 8, the israelites decide that they want to be like everyone around them. instead of god being their king, they want a physical, earthly king. they want a man to rule them and to lead them through everything.

that wasn’t part of god’s plan.

god’s plan was for the israelites to trust him. his plan was to lead them and to be their king. however, a group of people decided to get selfish and put their wants and desires in front of god’s.

god, in all his love, gave the people of israel the free will to make decisions on their own and gave them the earthly king they wanted. he ended up anointing saul as the man to lead them and be their king.

it wasn’t part of god’s plan, but because of the selfish decisions of men, he altered his plan.

fast forward seven chapters to 1 samuel 15. in this chapter, god instructs saul to go kill a bunch of people. he says to kill everything – men, women, children, babies, cows, sheep, donkeys, camels – everything. wipe it all out is the instruction.

sounds pretty easy, right?

i thought it did. apparently saul didn’t. he went and killed the people just like god said. well, sort of. he let their king live and just decided to capture him. oh, and he decided not to kill some of the best sheep and cattle. he thought it’d be better to save those animals to sacrifice to god.

but that wasn’t part of god’s plan.

god wanted saul to kill everyone and everything. saul didn’t do it. because of this, god altered his plan and rejected saul be the ruler of israel.

fast forward again to 2 samuel 11. david was up on his roof and happened to peek in on this chick next door taking a bath. he thought she was hot and decided he wanted to hook up with her. since he was king at the time, he was able to make that happen. after he had sex with her, he found out that he knocked her up and she was pregnant. when her husband came back to town, david decided to send him off into battle and purposely have him killed.

that wasn’t part of god’s plan.

god’s plan was for david to have the wives he gave him. his plan was for bathsheba to be married to uriah. david, in his lust-filled selfishness, decided to go outside of god’s plan.

in the next chapter, god gets ticked off at david. he tells david that he gave him all of these girls to be his wives, he gave him both israel and judah and apparently that wasn’t enough because he had to go sleep with a married woman and murder her husband.

god has a perfect plan for all of us. he wants what is the absolute best for us. unfortunately, because of adam and eve eating that freaking apple, sin entered the world. at heart, we are incredibly selfish people and want the things that are best for us and that benefit us the most.

it’s hard for us to trust that god can do things better than us.

it’s hard for us to trust that god has a better plan than we do.

it’s hard for us to trust that god won’t let us down.

and because it’s hard, we try to take things into our own hands. we get tired of looking for god and think we can do it better. instead of waiting for what is right and what is from god, we take the easy way out and do what we want.

the thing that we have to realize is that god does have a plan for us and he does want what’s best for us. the thing that’s so tough about that is the fact that sometimes that plan isn’t easy. sometimes it takes faith. sometimes you have to send an application to trenton, michigan for a job when all you want to do is move to north carolina and work there. sometimes you have to leave your comfort zone. sometimes you have to actually work to get what it is god wants.

god sent constant war and struggle to the people of israel for not doing what he wanted.

god sent depression, jealousy, and eventually death to saul for not doing what he wanted.

god sent a sickness to the child that david had with bathsheba that ended up killing him for not doing what he wanted.

god’s plans are sometimes harder than ours. the payoff sometimes seems so distant that we wonder if it’s even worth it. however, as you can see from israel, saul, and david, the easy decision with a quick payoff sometimes has lasting implications.

i want to do what god wants.

i don’t want to screw up his plans.

and i’m willing to work for that.

the question is this: are you ready to work for what god wants?

say your prayers and take your vitamins.

have a nice day.

-jonathan