For I hope to see you when I pass through, and to be assisted by you for my journey there, once I have first enjoyed your company for a while. Right now I am traveling to Jerusalem to serve the saints, for Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. (Romans 15:24-26)
During one his missionary journeys, Paul received an offering from churches in Macedonia and Achaia (modern day Greece). The offering was for believers living in Jerusalem in need of help. He wrote to the church in Rome that after he takes this offering to Jerusalem he will visit them on his way to Spain. Paul never made it to Spain. He did make it to Rome, not as a missionary, but as a prisoner. Tradition has it that he was martyred there.
Leke Alder wrote a series of great articles asking, "What if?" For example, he wrote an article asking what if Uriah had slept with Bathsheba? Provocative questions that cause us to ponder how things might be different if actions were different.
So I ask the question, what if Paul had given the offering to someone else to take to Jerusalem? What if he made it to Rome and ultimately went to Spain? Would the corpus of his writings be different? Probably? Would God's plan have been thwarted? Absolutely not! "What if" does not change the fact that God will always be glorified. The only real difference would be what "what if" questions we would be asking. What if Paul took the offering to Jerusalem, was arrested, and was taken to Rome as a prisoner? He did and he was so this a moot question.
Paul wanted to go to Spain by way of Rome. It was a good desire. He was still spreading the gospel and serving the Lord. The gospel did make it to Spain. Seventy-seven and a half percent of Spaniards claim Christianity as their religion even though Paul didn't make it there.
What are your plans? Do you ever feel frustrated that you cannot do the things for God that He has called you to do because there are other things you need to get done first? Does life get in the way of your calling? Or, are you using life circumstances to avoid doing something and using Paul's situation as your Biblical basis for staying put? "God is blocking me from going the same way He blocked Paul."
I sometimes get so wrapped up in what's next that I miss out on the now. I need to heed the words of Jesus. "Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Mt 6:23)
"What if I go? What will happen here?" God will be glorified.
"What if stay? What will happen there?" God will be glorified.
Pray, study, discern, walk in faith, and be ready for God to nudge you in a different direction now and then.
