A long time ago (in a country much closer these days) God told me I would do more and see more than Luke Skywalker could ever imagine. That's the thing about God. He speaks your language. He knows your heart, and your desires - and he uses those things to communicate more effectively and intimately. It was truly a life changing word - because shortly after that love letter/promise from God, 4 complete strangers walked into the house and prophetically said the same thing (in different words, but I could clearly see what He was up to). Within a year I was married to my first love and traveling the world as a missionary, having one of the best times of my life.
No. The two films I would like to nominate are "Pump Up The Volume" with Christian Slater (you kinda need to substitute the 'net for radio) and "The Photographer".
Since you have more than likely never seen it - a photographer who was at the top of his craft loses the spark and is about to lose it all. In a seedy downtown bar, he finds 10 brilliant photos on the floor and decides to submit them as his own. Until they are stolen. And so begins a long journey into the night to recover what was taken. What he finds instead, of course, is his soul.
I've been enjoying what Douglas Adams once described as 'the long dark tea-time of the soul.' Being a bit more proactive and optimistic (yes, Mr. Badger is an optimist) I've seen the recent challenges (fires, gear amputation, Cola rehab, intercontinental relocation) as leading to something brilliant.
While wandering the streets I too have had that growing realisation of the less I have, the more I have to depend on God. This is a wonderful (in an exhilarating bungee jumping vibe) thing.
'If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.' It's not your plans intention I think He chuckles over, it's the scale. We are like the microscopic battle fleet that invaded earth and was swallowed by a small dog. We just don't get the scale of what's going on around us.
So while I've been out looking to fulfill those images of my destiny in my mind, God has steadily been steering me into a position of total dependence. The darker it gets, the more I need Him.
Now He is all I have - and the payoff has begun. I finalised my tiny plans last night, and this morning began to feel the remorse of planning something so finite, so limited by my resources and abilities. But because I decided to start, He enabled.
The phone rang, and something a million times bigger than me was on the other end. Something that would force me to think on a much larger scale and enable a much greater work. As long as I had to courage to just say yes. If they called, then God must have told them I was somehow capable of doing the job.
If I had not shed myself of my low level affordable equipment and business plan...I wouldn't be out in the open looking for something better. Looking for something God sized, and totally free to accept it.
Those pictures in my head - those images of my destiny, those fragmentary plans - they were always there, they were just flashes of the journey, and as I move forward, they just happen all on their own. I just have to take the journey.
