“God has a plan for your life.” A phrase heard so often it almost seems like a cliché, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that it is not, it is completely true! Isn’t that exciting!

Webster’s defines a plan as “a set of actions that have been thought of as a way to do or achieve something.” This is what God has for us in each of our lives. God has a particular set of goals that he wants each person to accomplish, and whether we do so or not is completely up to us. Let me explain just a little bit.

Since the first time I laid eyes on Anthony Burger, one of the best pianists in the history of Gospel music, I started developing a plan for my life. I was going to be the next Anthony Burger. I was going to go around playing music and accompanying a group, it was going to be awesome. The fact that God already had an Anthony Burger did not cross my mind. I had yet to realize that he needed a Timothy Warren.

For a good number of years, I tried to force God’s plan to be my own. I auditioned for a couple of groups, played everywhere I could, heck, I even sent demos to groups that performed on stage at the National Quartet Convention. I wanted in!! Meanwhile, in the background, God was getting ready to sit down and have a talk with me.

In 2014, I became the church pianist of a small Baptist church in my community. I loved my time there and the people I met. While I was there, though, the Lord told me, “I still need people in the churches.” That thought kind of shook me, because I knew He was telling me that I needed to spend my time in one church, I was not going to travel all over the world like Anthony Burger.

In May of 2014, I put together an instrumental Gospel group that spent time traveling to assisted living homes. We had the opportunity to do a few church performances, all of which I don’t think I will ever forget. Interestingly enough, God used this to turn my direction back onto His path.

In December of 2015, my drummer and I went to sub for some musicians one Sunday at a Church of God. I was excited, I had grown up holiness and missed being in the presence of people who had beliefs even more similar to mine than the Baptist church has.

We went and played, and the music minister asked me if I was interested in coming full-time as a keyboard player. At that time, I had two possibilities: being a pianist at another Baptist church I had auditioned at or being the music minister at another Baptist church in my hometown. I told her the situation and asked if I could get back to her.

Just to keep the story short, both of the offers fell through, and I wound up at Adairsville Church of God in January of 2016 as a keyboard player. In the back of my mind, I was still searching for a paying church position, but for the meantime, I could settle here. Well, this is where God’s plan took over.

Two Sundays in, I ended up becoming the keyboardist/worship leader for the youth band. They did not have anybody until I came along, so I volunteered to do it, and it has been fantastic. Then, I started talking to the guitar player and his wife, who is the head of children’s church. I am now the scriptwriter and one of the puppeteers in children’s church on Sunday mornings. Now, to add the last little detail of this story, I am joining the church!! Quite a different mindset than what I had in 2014, wouldn’t you say?

My point is, I may be young, but God obviously had and has a plan for my life, and I could have messed it up and not completed the tasks He had set for me to do. What if I would have been able to join a group and go around the U.S.? I would have never started my instrumental group, I would have never filled in for the Adairsville Church of God, never been able to get the youth band back up and running, and never been able to work with the puppet ministry. There are a lot of “never’s” in that one sentence, and in my mind, that equals a lot of lives God would not have been able to touch through me.

If you are listening, I want to tell you, no matter what you want for your life, what God has is better. I feel so fulfilled doing what I’m doing now, and I know, when you find yourself sitting at the center of God’s will, you too will feel the same fulfillment I feel now.

Be sure to follow me on social media so you do not miss my any of my articles!

FaceBook: Tim Warren

Twitter: @MrTMWarren

Instagram: MrTMWarren