I met some really cool people when I worked at retail store, Topshop.

One of my colleagues wore a bobble hat and moustache, even in the summer.

While he didn’t really fit in to the whole Topshop brand, I considered him a friend and I was always happy to discover that we were working the same shop floor shift. My friend never tried to be anyone other than who he was. If he didn’t like something, he wouldn’t try to people please. I don’t think he wore 100% Topman clothes or listened to popular music, but he did read books. He was exceptionally well read, and I would often talk to him about my English Literature studies. He was also fond of psychology. In fact, he once analysed staff handwriting to de-code our personalities!

In another conversation, my bobble hat friend once said to me: “it’s amazing what you come up with when you don’t have a lot of money.”

He explained that both he and his girlfriend had come up with new, creative ways of acquiring and saving money. He didn’t seem to have a lot of money at the time, but I could tell that he was thinking outside the box in order to raise funds.

I can’t really remember what those projects were or even what bobble hat and girlfriend were trying to fund, but I do believe my friend shared something wise beyond his years with me that day…

When your option A’s are taken away from you, you start to consider option B.

When you have your financial security ripped out from under you, typically you start to get frugal, creative, and inventive. Actually, you start to see things you didn’t see before. You look for things that you can make and do, in order to change your situation.

My boss thinks in a similar way.

He says that there is a default way of thinking – but you should always question the default.

Why do you think you need a 9-5 job in order to acquire money? What if there was another option?

Why do you think you need to rely on your monthly salary? What if you could cut down your hours and study that subject you love?

Why do you think you need to be around to give the kids tea at 5:30pm every evening? What if you could drop them at a friends and go to a gym class one night a week?

When option A goes AWOL, believe there is a better option B.

What is it that you think you cannot do?

Maybe you believe you don’t have enough time or money to exercise.

Maybe you think your current way of earning money is the only way.

Maybe you have convinced yourself that you can’t get the right amount of vegetables in your diet, without hiring a personal chef! I can assure you, there is another way.

But have you noticed… your option A rarely matches God’s creative option B?

I am realising that I am not all that comfortable with the fact our God is “way-maker.”

I mean, it’s amazing that He made a way for us to have eternal life, free from sin, sickness, shame and condemnation. But sometimes, I just want God to do it my way.

I just want our way-maker to opt for my option A.

And I struggle to catch onto the fact that His option B is always the best.

Always the most unexpected.

Always unfathomable.

Never seemingly straightforward to us.

Downright unpredictable.

His option B requires my Belief.

At the moment, I don’t have an option A. If I did, it’s gone AWOL already. So I am relying on God’s option B.

I am waiting for Him to un-default my life and show me a path that He’s mapped out, just for me.

And it is not an easy process. I don’t feel like I am moving, learning, achieving… anything.

But I am believing that my way-maker God is good. And I am believing that His timing is perfect.

Will you join me?

Today, set aside just five minutes out of your day. Open a journal. Ask the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind any area in which you’ve been relying on your ‘option A’ to work out. Ask: “God, where am I making plans without you?” And then pray that He gives you the eyes to see His great, imaginative option B! Pray boldly, ask Him to shatter your plans and give you His.

I am believing that God will give you incredible, radical plans that are far greater than your own.

I’d love to hear any testimonies in the comments below.