to-do list...

To be honest I love the beginning of each semester because I love getting each and every syllabus. You can read through it see exactly what the professor wants and all of your tasks for the semester, lay them out nicely in terms of what needs to be done when and then cross them off one by one with the list of to-dos getting shorter and shorter, until completion. The achiever in me LOVES crossing things off! Honestly, I make out to-do lists that have somethings listed that I already have done simply so that I can cross them off and see how much I already have accomplished.

Today I heard a woman after my own heart, she said, "don't you just wish sometimes that God

would email you a to-do list in the morning and then you could know exactly what to do to serve him that day and cross of each thing as you complete it?" I almost screamed, "YES!!" I mean you wouldn't miss helping that lady with the flat-tire on I-630 because you were in the left lane, because you would already know to be in the right lane ready to pull over. I'd also be ok if he wanted to be more miraculous and give me my to-do list in the version of writing on the wall or whatever. Then I could cross things off and know that I'm getting done all that he wants from me every single day and not missing anything. And could you imagine if your to-do list said say, "buy ticket for India 3 weeks from today," or "deny job offer by such and such company," or "go say hi to the guy in the yellow shirt in the student union." How great would that be to just know what to do everyday?

I guess that takes out the element of faith and that's not how God works. It's like those classrooms that only have one rule, respect. That one rule of respect is harding to follow and requires so much more thought than a list dos and don'ts. It requires constant thought, constant evaluation of where you are emotionally and spiritually. If I had a to-do list I wouldn't have to be dependent on God for every moment and in every decision and while that might not make the achiever in me happy, it does make me closer to God than my to-do list would. David Crowder says that his daily prayer is that the Lord would give him enough light to see his next step and the courage to take it. While that's a scarier path than my wish of a simple to-do list, I guess God knew what he was doing in having his children cling close to him. So today Lord, please give me the light to see my next step and the courage to take it.