“If you are truly in the center of God's will, where you are in five years is none of your business."

This quote from Veggie Tales creator Phil Visher bears some thought. In a world where we have one-year, five-year, ten-year, and even thirty-year plans for our lives, we are challenged to look more at the big picture than ever. Who is it that is in control of my life?

Sunday school answer: "God."

Truthfully, if we dug deeper into the ins and outs of our lives we'd find that someone else altogether is in control of what we are doing?

The child's response: "Those big people that make me go where I don't really want to go."

The real answer: "I'm the master of my own destiny."

As much as I like to be in control of all that goes on around me, when I am running the show, I often don't know where I'm going or what the outcome will be until we've arrived and the dead-end is in sight.

If I truly want to be a follower of Christ, then I must begin to live and walk in God's will. To do that, I can't make any positive statements about what I will be doing next year, in five years, or even in five minutes.

When I stood before a crowded auditorium in Alabama in January 2000, I became a missionary for our denomination. My intention was to travel across the world and plant my life as I planted churches among a people who knew not Christ. In the midst of the process, I met my precious wife. We took the time to marry, and before returning to my assignment, we had a baby and the wife was processed to become a career missionary, appointed in Alabama in January 2002. We began our ministry, making plans for a long and fruitful career.

So here I sit in the big middle of America. What of my plans? What of my goals? What matters is that I follow the leading of God. He prepares me for His work, His glory. Where will I be in five years? I leave that to the Master. What I do between now and then is to be faithful to His call for me to be here, now. In five years, perhaps I'll be here, perhaps I'll be elsewhere, perhaps I'll be nowhere on earth--what matters is that God knows, and that is all that is important.