Sometimes it takes a Shipwreck

Coming out of the Cage of Failure - Chapter 6 of Mark Batterson's Wild Goose Chase.

...failure also has a way of opening us up to other options. (118)

...sometimes it takes a shipwreck to get us where God wants us to go.

...sometimes our plans have to fail in order for God's plans to succeed. (119)

...it took a snakebite to set up this divine appointment...

But when you chase the Wild Goose, you never know where you'll go or who you'll meet. (121)

A healthy relationship between parent and child moves from dependence to independence. But a healthy relationship with our heavenly Father moves in the opposite direction. (126)

...it is our dependence on God, not our best laid plans that will get us where God wants us to go.

Thank God for failed plans! (127)
Maybe one day I'll be able to say this. At this moment, time, place, I cannot. Failure is a hard pill to swallow. I do everything I can to avoid failure. Maybe that is why most of life is boring. I don't try things that I know that I cannot succeed in.

God is far more concerned about about your future than you are.

God wants to reveal them [His divine plans] more than we want to know them. (128)

God is in the business of positioning us in the right place at the right time. (129)

...our reasons and God's reasons are often very different. (132)

...you have to trust His promptings more than you trust your own plans. (134)

What He shuts no one can open, and what He opens no one can shut. (136)
This Scripture is given an entirely different meaning when read in the context of the One who holds the Key of David. This is a reference to the mayor of the palace of David who had the master key to every room in the palace. The doors he locked, no one could open. The doors he opened, no one could shut. Wow. What a difference. The doors Jesus shuts, no one can open. The doors Jesus opens, no one can shut. How does this effect our efforts to discern God's will?

God seems to be far less concerned with where I'm going than with who I'm becoming.

I think some of us want to know the will of God more than we want to know God.

You can't do the will of God if you don't have the heart of God. (137)

What we call the process, God calls the end. [quoting Oswald Chambers p. 137]

Hard work doubles as gratitude insurance. (138)

The size of our dreams is a measure of our spiritual maturity.

If I couldn't enjoy pastoring twenty-five people here and now, then I probably wouldn't enjoy pastoring a thousand people then and there. (140)

As I see it, you have two options when you don't like your circumstances: complain about them or make the most of them. (141)

"The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can't find them, make them." [quoting George Bernard Shaw p. 141]

God is in them [your circumstances]. He is capable of working them together for your good. (142)