Well, as those great philosophers of yore, Calvin & Hobbes, once noted:
“Wow, it really snowed last night! Isn’t it wonderful?” “Everything familiar has disappeared! The world looks brand new! It’s like having a big white sheet of paper to draw on!” “A day full of possibilities.” “It’s a magical world, Hobbes, ol’ buddy. Let’s go exploring!”
It actually did snow last night in Boston, and while it wasn’t very much, the world is very much full of possibilities. I’ve been reading Don\‘t Waste Your Life (review presumably to follow one of these days) by John Piper, and while I found him to be a little heavy-handed this time around, his basic message is sound, essentially that we are here to glorify God, so whenever we’re not doing that, we’re not being as fulfilled as we could be.
What does that mean for you? For me? Well, it’s not cut and dry, which makes sense, given a God of infinite creativity. (I can get frustrated, sometimes, because authors will say something along the line of “Pray, and God will reveal stuff to you,” but I suppose that’s less frustrating than advice that really has nothing to do with my situation. Still, for people who have trouble discerning the voice of God (probably the vast majority of people I know), I wish there could be a little bit more of a road map.)
Actually, that last parenthetical bit is mostly what I wanted to write about today given that it’s the New Year and all. I’m a little distressed at the way that God seems to communicate significant life changes to me. I mean, overall, I have some idea of where I’m headed, but the specifics? Ybos/OHO: I got the job, essentially, because I ran into a housemate in the stairwell. My current flatmates: I was a little stressed about finding replacements for Chris and Kevin, but it all came together while I was singing for the Lowell Spinners with the VariAsians. Synergy (India) -> Julia: that was a chain that basically jumped out of nowhere and, for a time, seemed to have great promise (I’m still trying to figure out whether I think meeting Julia was good for me or not, but I suppose ultimately it’s good to care deeply about someone, even if you get hurt in the end).
What stinks (sort of) about this, is that it can be really hard to make any plans. I’m going along, minding my own business, when WHAM, suddenly something changes and I’m headed somewhere else (it’s like Katie ending up in Kuwait—who saw that one coming?). But (and here’s the kicker), there’s never any guarantee that it’s going to happen this way. So do I stretch for possibilities that might not pan out? Or do I wait for God, knowing that he’s got something better for me than what I could effect on my own? Especially given that most of the best things in my life have been the surprise ones that I couldn’t really have planned.
The model that I’ve been employing is to generally do what I think is right but not to really go out of my way (I’ve been in Boston for 10 years, after all), and I do have to say that it seems to have worked reasonably well thus far. I know a lot of great people; I’ve got a good job with a manager who cares about my development; every now and then I get these flashes of “do this or that” and things seem to go okay. And yet, I feel like I’ve outgrown this phase of life a little, but I’m not sure where God wants me to go next. Am I supposed to find this next step by myself? I feel like I’m not glorifying God as much as I could or as much as I want to, and so…
As you can tell, my thoughts haven’t really crystalized on this. I thought by the end of this post, I’d have the answer, but I find I’ve just been circling around and around. So I guess I’ll stop for now and leave the answer up to someone wiser than me. 
Ultimately, so they say, God is good.
