Change? No thanks! I will pass on that one….

Raise your hand if you want God to do amazing things in your life and use you in ways that you would never imagine? I have my hand raised and I hope you do, too. However, the thing is I don’t want God to have to change anything about me, or my lifestyle, to do that. Anyone else feel this way? I am a creature of habit and I like knowing exactly how life is going to be for me. Nevertheless, one thing I have realized on my journey with God is that sometimes you are just not going to know what is going to happen and you have to be okay with that. I know you are reading this thinking, “Well, Maci, that is a lot easier said than done.” Trust me, I am right there with you. I read this quote the other day that said, “To think you can love God without being changed by Him, is to think you can jump into the ocean and not get wet. To really love Him, you must understand that your life is going to be wrecked by Him, and built again into something beautiful, something lasting.” Honestly, this is a great quote but to think that my life has to be wrecked by God is totally and completely scary. I want God to do great things in my life but I don’t want to really change for Him to do it. I want God to work in my life, but wreck it? Really?
 

I think about Mary. God really “wrecked” her life and shook it up completely. Mary, who was probably 14 to 15 years old, was just out there living her life. She was about to get married and start a family. Life was good for Mary, and then Gabriel was sent by God to tell Mary that she was the one who would carry, our Jesus. In that moment, Mary chose to let God wreck her world. The life she had planned out would never be the same. She did not know if Joseph would stay with her; she did not know anything about her future in that moment. However, she abandoned her own wants to follow her God. Mary gave up her own life to be the girl God had called her to be.

 Wow, Mary… you are simply amazing! See the thing is Mary had faith that the changes God would make in her would lead to “something beautiful, something lasting,” like the quote said. The thing is, I wish I could be more like Mary. In my mind, I think, what if I let God wreck my world and it does not turn out the way I want it to? What if God decides I am not supposed to get married? What if God decides I am not supposed to have my own children? What if God decides I need to move to a different state? My mind wanders and wanders to these things. Then I have to remind myself that the best choice for me is to step out in faith and let God wreck my world, because living in God’s plan for my life will always be better than my own. Maybe I won’t get all these things that in my mind I think I need, but I feel sure that the life God has for me is so much more that I could ever have imagined. Mary gave birth to our Savior. I bet she was not sitting at her house a year before Gabriel appeared to her thinking you know what, I am going to give birth to the child that is going to grow up and be Maci Swindle’s Savior. However, a year later she did! Because Mary knew a life wrecked by God is so much better than the life she had planned. I don’t know about you but I have decided for 2018 I want my life to be wrecked by God, even if that means my life is completely different. I want to be the Maci Swindle who He intended for me to be and not the Maci Swindle that I selflessly want to be. My prayer for 2018 is that I allow God to do this change in my life because in 2017 I was holding on to the life I wanted.  I have come to realize that is never going to work for me. I am letting go of the life I had imagined to completely and fully embrace the one God has for me. My prayer for whomever is reading this is that you are living your best life with God, and that you are the person He wants you to be. If not, there is still time! Let Him wreck your world. Change is hard, but change is necessary. Be who He called you to be and I promise, in the end, your life will be much more than you could have ever imagined. Just look at Mary.
 

P.S. If you know my dad, you know he wasn’t in church my whole life but he let God wreck his world about 10 years ago and now he preaches. It hasn’t always been easy, but I guarantee he will say it was completely worth it. His latest message called “What If” is what God used to inspire this blog. I love you, Dad! Thankful for the Godly leader you are in our family.