Committing Myself to God

Commit your work to the Lord,
and your plans will be established. 

Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. (Proverbs 16:3, 19:21)

I'm incorrigibly idealistic. My mind is always flowing with dreams, harebrained schemes and plans that land me in all sorts of adventurous situations. I'm always thinking about what might make the world a better place, or maybe just how I'm going to get by in this life and get what I want. The problem is that there is a strong temptation for me to rely on my plans, my wit, my skills, or even just plain dumb luck, in order to get things done. And I'm none the wiser when I fall for that temptation.

As an ardent believer in the providence of God, I am often harping on about how everything in life is in God's hands, that He has promised to take care of His children, and will in no wise fall back from fulfilling that promise. Yet I must confess that I don't always live up to that profession of faith. I confess that it is a sin on my part that I always end up falling back to the mentality that somehow, everything depends on me, that I have to make things happen and I must determine the course that my life will take. I don't commit myself to God in my prayers nearly as much as I ought to, and the result of this negligence has been much unnecessary anxiety and disappointment. And if I fall, I have nobody to blame for that but myself. It's like that old song that's often sung in churches: "O what peace we often forfeit / O what needless pain we bear / all because we do not carry / everything to God in prayer."

I got a lot going on in my mind right now. I got university papers to finish, jobs to apply for, a summer missions application to work on, and (potentially) a significant other to pursue. This endless avalanche of things to think about brings with it a strong temptation to fall into my old habit of perpetual anxiety and stressing out. But tonight, I've committed it all to the Lord. He reminded me that He is there and is available for me to come crawling to Him, unworthy though I may be. I've placed all these things before His feet in prayer, and I am trusting that He will sort everything out even where I have no earthly idea what I have to do or how things might turn out. If they turn out the way I hope in my mind they'd turn out, well and good. If not, well then, it's not the end of the world. God must have something better in mind. He has promised, and will not change His mind, that "for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28)

Blessed be the Lord God Who has numbered the hairs on our heads and Whose eye is on every sparrow that darkens the skies.

About Thought Criminal #219

Who is Thought Criminal #219?

Well, for starters, I grew up in an idyllic (sort of) tropical paradise, until Divine Providence saw fit to relocate me to the frozen wastelands of Canada, where I have spent the last few years of my life engaging in guerrilla warfare against the forces of darkness in the hopes of eventually immanentizing the eschaton.

It's been one crazy ride, let me tell you that.

All of my musings and opinions are informed by and filtered through the Christian Worldview. As far as my theology goes:

• I hold to what the historic Christian Creeds (ie. Apostles', Nicene and Athanasian Creeds) have to say about the nature of God, which makes me orthodox (small-o) and catholic (small-c).
• I take the Bible as my final authority, and the 1689 London Baptist Confession as the subordinate authority that most accurately describes what the Bible has to say on any given topic.
• I am Protestant/Reformed in my views on how salvation takes place, meaning that I affirm the five Solas as well as the five points of Calvinism.
• I use Presuppositional apologetics to explain the truth of the Christian worldview over and against other worldviews (be they secular or religious).
• I am a Kuyperian in my views on the relationship between Christianity and the public square.
• I am (with superb alliteration) a Postmillennial Partial Preterist in my view of the end times.

For those who are interested in my educational background, I spent a year studying theology at Toronto Baptist Seminary, then transferred to the University of Toronto (where I currently am) to work on my bachelor's degree in Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, with a minor in History. That means there's a fairly good chance that I may end up in the Middle East at some point in the near future, though that depends on the grace and provision of the good Master.

That doesn't mean I limit myself to just those topics, however. I fancy myself to be a bit of a polymath, so I'm more than happy to talk about anything under the sun, whether it's philosophy, law, history, the social sciences, politics, current events, the finer points of english grammar, or the latest internet memes. As long as you don't ask me to comment about the latest sports happenings--I know nothing about such things, and refuse to touch the topic with a ten foot pole.

For those who are into the Myers-Briggs personality test, I usually score as an INFJ, though I occasionally also score as an INTJ, which I guess means that I'm a hybrid of both. Given the complexity of human nature, it only makes sense that I couldn't be boxed neatly into either of those two categories.

Anything else you may want to know about me, you can find out either by interacting with my musings or contacting me personally (if you can figure out how to).

And yes, the title of this blog is an Orwell reference. Go crazy.