God’s Intricate Plan: How I Met My Wife

You might be going through a hard time right now. Something might’ve happened recently that makes no sense to you and you’re beginning to wonder if God really does care about you or if he even has an intricate plan for you.

Recently, God’s blown me away by showing me all the intricate ways he’s moved in my life. As we are walking through life, it’s hard to see what God’s doing, but, when we look back, it becomes much more clear.

One of the craziest ways God’s moved in my life centers around how I met my wife. I hope this crazy story will encourage you to push through challenging seasons.

A Thirteen-year-old’s Dream

I only went to summer camp once as a kid right after 7th grade. It was a camp just outside of Colorado Springs called Camp Elim, and I loved it. Ever since that summer, I dreamed of becoming a camp counselor.

At the age of seventeen, I checked to see if I could be a counselor but learned I could only work in the kitchen. So, I decided to wait until the next year when I could apply to be a full counselor. Unfortunately, something came up, so I decided to wait again. This happened time after time until I was twenty.

I worked with a Christian lawnmowing business and the wife of the owner told me about a camp called Cross Bar X. She thought that I’d be a great camp counselor and encouraged me to apply.

This reminded me of my dream, and I realized that coming summer was my last opportunity to fulfill this old dream of mine.

My Last Chance

After that summer I’d head into my final year of college, and I knew once I got into the workforce it would be difficult to take a summer off of work to be a camp counselor. This was my last chance to live out my old dream. So, I applied and interviewed.

All along, I talked with my dad about this plan. I lived at home during college, so I figured I should honor my dad. However, he didn’t like this idea. He wanted me to get a better paying job.

On March 13th, 2014 I wrote this in my journal, “Lord, I pray that you would work in an amazing way. I don’t know if [this] is in your will or not, but I beg you to make it work. I don’t usually ask that you let me do things other than what is in your will, but this time I break that mold. Please let me go, Lord, please, please, please! You know how much I will love it. Only you can change this, so please!”

We talked for weeks. During this time, I got accepted to the camp counselor position. Everything seemed to be working out. Then, just weeks before summer my dad came to the final decision that he didn’t want me to go.

I was crushed.

A Confused and Longing Heart

I didn’t see any spiritual reason that backed my dad’s decision. His decision seemed worldly from my perspective; however, I knew God called me to honor my dad. God spoke and moved before to change my dad’s mind when it came to other ministry opportunities that I felt God calling me to pursue.

I knew God could change my dad’s mind, but for some reason, he wasn’t opening the door this time.

I was frustrated, confused, and upset.

On April 6th, 2014, I wrote, “Last Friday (the 4th) my dad gave me his solid answer in regard to the camp—it was a no. . . . But, Father, I know you are in control. I don’t know if this is what you want, but you are working. Please speak into my heart and tell me what I need to do. I am willing, I just can’t seem to hear from you. Please open my eyes and ears. I truly want to follow you and I fear I will go the wrong way.”

I thought for certain working at this summer camp was God’s will for me. After all, where did this dream come from? I thought he gave it to me, so the possibility of not doing it shocked me.

I felt lost.

Letting Go

On April 18th, 2014, I wrote, “Father, where are you? I could really use your guidance. . . . I don’t know what to do as far as my dad goes. . . . Why aren’t you talking to me? I feel like I’m trapped in the middle of a battle with no communication with you. Give me wisdom to follow you and please, please, please tell me when I am going the wrong way.

“Prove to me that you still are watching me. I haven’t doubted your presence in years, but now I wonder. I know you are there, I just haven’t heard from you in so long. . . . Please, Father, I need inspiration. I need a vision. I need hope in what you have for me. . . . Father, just guide me, don’t let me stray. Do as little as possible if you want, just don’t let me make any wrong choices.”

I knew God loved me and had an intricate plan in mind, but I wanted this dream so bad.

After weeks of praying, two things only solidified in my mind. I should honor my father while I lived in his house, and I could trust God.

So, I took this dream of mine and held it out before God. I prayed, “Father, you know I’ve longed for this for years, and you know just how impossible it will be for me to fulfill this dream later in life, but I trust you. You desire what is best for me. It doesn’t make sense to me, but I put this dream in your hands. I give it up to you, and I don’t expect to ever get it back. I trust you.”

Dreams Forgotten

Despite all my confusion and frustration, God had a plan. I didn’t know what it was, nor did I see it. In many ways, it felt like God abandoned me or didn’t want what was best for me. But, he gave me just enough faith to trust him.

So, let go of this dream and I moved on.

We do not follow a God of the mediocre; God is only capable of the incredible.

Once I said no to the summer camp, the college ministry I was serving with invited me to come to a three-week great commission training/outdoor adventure summer project. For some reason, my dad said yes to this.

At this summer project, God started stirring my heart for missions.

Building off of that project, God led me to the Middle East for two years before once again directing me back to intern with that same college ministry.

As the years passed, I forgot about my old dream of being a camp counselor. I gave it up and expected to never see it again, but God had an intricate plan.

As my work with the college ministry was concluding and as I was preparing to step into my current job with the Great Commission Alliance (GCA), I got an email from the director of our ministry. The email was forwarded from another ministry director who asked if we knew any college guys who might be interested in working at his summer camp called Cross Bar X.

God’s Intricate Plan

Seeing that email and that same camp name shook me. It brought back all those memories from four years before when I let my dream die.

I remember very clearly saving that email away and closing my eyes. With my heart hammering in my chest, I prayed: “God, I gave this dream up to you. I’m afraid to even hope because it feels so impossible. But, I ask once more: Please open the door and allow me to taste the fulfillment of this dream you set in my heart ten years ago.”

Unfortunately, I’d start working with the GCA on June 1st. So, I put this problem before God.

I prayed, “God, if you want me to work at this summer camp, then grant me favor with the GCA. Make it possible for me to work at the summer camp while on staff with the GCA.”

God worked it out and this is exactly what the GCA allowed me to do.

Meeting My Wife

Cross Bar X is a small camp with only 30-40 campers per week and only four male and four female counselors. However, God had an intricate plan, and one of those five female counselors would be the woman I’d marry two years later.

If I had worked at that camp back in 2014 when I first wanted to, I would’ve never met my wife. But God knew. He loves me, just as he loves you. He has a plan that will only begin to make sense when we look back on it years into the future.

I had such a hard time letting this dream die, but I’m so glad I did. Not only did God fulfill this dream when the time was right, but he also used it to fulfill my dream of marriage.

Trust God’s Intricate Plan

My encouragement to you is this: Trust God. He’s so good and he loves you so much. He wants to do so many things through you that will make you dance with joy and help others find the only true joy in Christ.

Yes, it will be hard. Yes, it might not make sense in the moment. But, trust him. He knows the future and he knows your heart far better than you.

We do not follow a God of the mediocre; God is only capable of the incredible.

On April 18th, 2014, I wrote, “Father, where are you? I could really use your guidance.”

Where was God when I felt lost and confused? As always, he was right beside me, working and moving in the situation to bring about his glorious and intricate plan.

God hasn’t fulfilled all my dreams yet, I still don’t have any of my fiction books published. He hasn’t yet opened that door.

Just as I’m encouraging you to push on despite the difficulty and confusion, so I’m encouraging myself. I have seen God move before, so I’ll press on and trust that he is the great I AM, who will open the impossible doors. Not just for the sake of seeing my heart come alive, but also so his name will be glorified and praised.

So let’s jump out into the unknown and trust God together. It might not make sense, but that’s part of the fun. It’s part of the adventure.

Join me.

Let’s Live Wilder.

 

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If you’d like to continue reading, check out my last blog post: Press On Toward Your God-Given Dream