God's Plan for Us

One night, working late in the kitchen with one of my friends, she asked me a question that I think we all ponder at some point or another: “Do you believe that there is one special person out there for everyone?”

I laughed. That’s what I do when someone asks me something like that. I can’t respond right away, and it’s a colossally important question, so I just laugh. Then I think, and then I answer.

“Yes.” I said. “And no.”

And she laughed.

But that’s really the right answer, I think. Because there are two aspects of the problem: there is free-will, and there is God’s plan. We believe, as Christians, that God has planned for each of us the best life for our unique personality, situation, and vocation. He has made us with a desire for happiness, and he does not want us to be miserable. It would follow, then, that if he created us with a vocation to marriage, that he would provide us with a marriage partner that is most suitable.

How romantic am I sounding right now? Pretty low on the scale, huh? Yeah....

I’ll say it a different way: God created someone out there for you. He had you in mind when he was creating someone else. Seriously, how cool is that? He says to us, “Before you were born, I dedicated you.”(Jeremiah 1:5) He knew everything that would happen to you and to your spouse before either of you were even formed in the womb, and he formed both of you in your life, preparing you for each moment, and each big event that you would face. One of those events is meeting each other.

But...

(Yes, we all knew there was a but coming)...

But, don’t let that psyche you out. Don’t spend your life trying to find that one other person, and worrying that you’ll ruin everything if you make any wrong choices along the way. God makes good out of evil, and he makes lemonade out of our lemons. Even if you turned your back on God for fifty years, married the wrong person, and just lived a bad life, if you both turned back towards God and worked on your marriage, you can still be incredibly happy.

People tend to think that if they don’t marry that one person, then they’ll never happy on earth. But that is a lie. Seriously. Because in this world it is possible to fall in love with multiple people.

Ultimately, who you end up with is the person you were meant to be with. God knows who you will marry, and the person you marry becomes your vocation. Your calling is to love, and we are called to love those to whom we have given ourselves.

The happiest we can be is when we listen to Christ in the moment and make the most out of the life we have now. So, can we make the wrong choices? Of course! Does that mean we will be miserable because of it? Not necessarily, and certainly not if we listen to God.

photo courtesy of 

izismile.com

Wesley and Buttercup found each other, they were in love, and they still had misery. That’s life. But Christ will make the most of it. He will heal you, guide you, and lead you - if you let him - to the best life you can live here on earth. If you just remember to listen to him and that life will always bring pain (because that’s life). But luckily, we are created for some place better, and that is where we find the fulfillment of love and be truly happy!