Developing a plan…..

It may be a quirk of my lifestyle, traveling constantly, but I have to have a plan!  I can’t trust myself to get where I need to go, arrive with everything I need, and then get home with everything if I don’t have a plan!  I can’t stand to feel that I’m not prepared for any possible scenario.  If I’m that “wired” about business and personal travel, you can  imagine how much I want to have a “Spiritual Plan”!

Here is my spiritual plan:

1.  Know God, Accept God, and Trust God……

2.  Seek to know His will for my life.  I know part of His will is that I need to live in a way that is a witness to Him.

3.  I know I can’t live like I should if I try to do it in my own strength.  I’ve proven time and again, that I’m not able to do that, not in my own power.

4.  So, I have to rely on Him day to day, moment to moment, to be my strength when I am unable to live to His standard.

5.  The more I trust Him and rely on Him, the more able I am to walk this walk.

6.  I must stay in constant contact with Him,  Through His Word, In Prayer, and in listening for His voice.

7.  When I do hear His voice and know what I am to do, to answer Him Yes Sir, in other words be obedient.

8.  When the long day is done, to learn to rest in Him.

In practical terms this means to meet every situation knowing that my behavior or response will be a signal to whether or not my relationship with Him is real, or not.  Let me give you a real world example of how this works.  A day ago I had a conversation with a friend.  He was very upset and expressed it.  My first internal reaction was to shoot back and defend myself.  God placed His hand on my heart and said, “Are the things being said untrue?”  The honest answer was no, they were not untrue.  God’s next question in my spirit was, “Did your friend  have the right to express his anger?”  Once again the answer was, yes, he did have the right to be angry.  Now the result.  I was able to express sincere regret, and agree that I was wrong in the situation.   The friend started to calm down some when they realized I was not going to fire back.  I think it was a witness opportunity.  Often our egos get in the way of our admitting to fault.  No one likes to be attacked, but it is wrong, and blows our witness if we don’t face up to criticism and handle it in the right way.  The best part for me was that after the confrontation was over I was not left with feelings of anger or hurt, I was ready to move on to the next thing in my day.  For me this is an extremely valuable thing, in the past I would haver ranted and raved and sought to fight back, not because I was unjustifiably attacked, but because my ego, my self, could not accept being called on the carpet.  When your guilt, it’s best to just admit it, and move on.

A day to day, moment to moment walk with Him will really change us, and in my case, that is a very good thing……………

Blessings,

the pilgrim

P.S.  I will be traveling tomorrow to Las Vegas for the WPPI show, then on the Fort Worth, Texas for Southwestern Photojournalism and then returning to rush to another airport to take my bride to St Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for some much needed rest, I will blog from all locations.  Maybe not as often from the Caribbean!