Life unscripted

I used to have a script for life.

A script for the church I would attend and the religion I would practice.

A script for the woman I would marry and the family we would raise.

A script for the house we would own and town where we would live.

A script for the career I would build and a script for the professional accomplishments I would accumulate.

When it comes down to it, I had a script for the people in my life.

And I had a script for God, too.

One by one over the years, those scripts ended up in cardboard boxes out in the garage or on the bottoms of stacks of yellowed papers in drawers. I even burned some of them.

Because life is unscripted. Can never be scripted.

Especially life with God.

The Bible is full of stories about people who had plans for their lives until they encountered God. And when they encountered God, God always said something about like this to them:

“Want to go somewhere with me?”

And that’s about it. Maybe a vague promise about “descendants like the stars” or “promised land” or “return from exile someday” or something like that.

And often a warning: “Things are not going to work out according to plan. This could get interesting or even deadly. Ready to go?”

Then life goes off the rails as they say.

Noah. Abraham. Jacob. Joseph. Moses. David. Isaiah. Jeremiah. Ezekiel. Daniel. Peter. James. John. Paul.

If they were living their lives to a script it was one they didn’t write and weren’t even allowed to see for themselves.

It’s funny in a not funny way that religion has a reputation as a pyramid marketing scheme. Buying and selling a God who is predictable, safe, and scripted. Making The Divine out to be five simple steps or a “plan of salvation” or a proven method when Scripture and our own experience of life proves that God is anything but.

If you’re going to live life with God, you’re going to live life without a script.

And you know what?

You were made for life unscripted.

You were made in the image of God for adventure, creativity, curiosity, exploration, improvisation. In short, you were made for faith and hope.

Faith and hope are to plans and scripts as stars are to street lamps.

And we know from Scripture that faith is the seed and hope is the soil that make love grow and bear fruit.

What kind of fruit?

God only knows.

But it’s gotta be good!

The good life–the God life–is life unscripted.