After living the previous five and a half years in Portland, a place I thought God would leave me for a long, long time, I’m now in Salem, a place to which I refused to go back.
It’s not that God doesn’t care if we’ve made a list about where we’ll never go, but He sees beyond it, to our hearts, knowing He’s trying to shape us to care less about the list. Tell God you don’t want to go to the desert, and I imagine you will likely find yourself there within five years.
I talked with a pastor a few weeks back who mentioned several young guys he used to work with who were now serving in the one area they said they would never live.
It seems a common thread in my life is to declare the things I never want to do, and then I ultimately end up doing them.
None of us is much different than Jonah.
God asked Jonah to go to one of those places he had in his list. And Jonah went the other direction. Like, the complete opposite direction. Clearly his own way of telling God, “Hey, you forgot about my list of places I never want to go to.”
But we’re human and we’re each drawn to different people and places for different reasons. I don’t think God looks down on us for this. Instead, God slowly gets us to see beyond ourselves, to a life where serving Him is the ultimate calling, and the place matters little in that calling.
Go ahead and write your list.
Declare to God and the world all the things you never want to do and don’t feel called to do.
Just know as you write the list, you serve a God who has seemingly impossible things He wants to accomplish through you. He knows you’re human. You have preferences, strengths, weaknesses.
Even still, God wants you to serve with open hands, seeking adventure, pouring yourself into the work He has set before you.
