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Decision Making
and God's Perspective:
Making sense of Urbana and your own personal journey
By Sue Plumb Takamoto
- "Oh no… It's been two months since Urbana and I haven't signed up with a mission agency yet. Am I out of God's will?"
- "How will I ever decide?!"
- "I think God and my parents have very different ideas about what's best for my life…"
- "Urbana still doesn't make sense to me."
If any of these statements sound like you, you're not alone… and believe it or not, you're quite normal!
For many of us who attended previous Urbana conventions, as we reflect, we recognize that our lives were completely changed because we attended Urbana. They have taken a certain trajectory that otherwise may never have happened. Urbana was a landmark. On the timelines of our lives, Urbana leaves behind a great big STAR because it was so significant in how God shapes us.
But, you may think, I haven't made any major decisions since Urbana. The "magic" didn't work for me.
May I suggest first – give it time. And then, read over three ideas to help you process your Urbana experience:
God is much more able to use and to move a young Christian who's completely open and pliable before Him than an experienced missionary who no longer listens to the Lord's voice.
1. God is most interested in our response to Him.
Our greatest responsibility in life, I believe, is to continually keep open, obedient hearts before Him. For many of us, Urbana is just a beginning step, not an end. Often it is during our times of "not knowing" that we are most pliable and transformed by Him. My mentor Bobby Clinton often says that God is at work in us over a lifetime, and he suggests that it is during our twenties and thirties that God is more concerned with our INWARD responses and formation rather than any work we may try and do for God during those years.
Remember some of those great worship times? Ken Fong suggested in his first message that God's first kiss to us was in Genesis 1; but when we worship, we kiss God back – sometimes feebly… sometimes without great understanding… sometimes with wrong motives. No matter how or why, God wants us to respond to him. He delights in the heartfelt responses of those who love Him. More significant than how many Urbana delegates checked off a box indicating that they intend to become missionaries is how many of us surrendered our hearts and lives to God. God is much more able to use and to move a young Christian who's completely open and pliable before Him than an experienced missionary who no longer listens to the Lord's voice. page 2 ...