Bitter ol' man

I think I'm just a bitter old man (28) but I am going to rant about these things regardless.

What does it mean to say that God has a plan for your life? Do we say this to comfort ourselves that our lives have meaning? If someone told me that it's ok don't worry God has a plan for you life, I'd say of course God has a plan for my life, but I need to follow it. But do people who say that God has a plan for my life mean that regardless they will follow God's plan because it's God's plan? If so, then are these people hardcore Jonathan Edwards reformed and deterministic? Or do they believe in free-will? If they believe in free will then believing that God has a plan for them and that regardless of what happens they will be in God's plan is absolutely incoherent! How can it make sense to be in God's plan regardless of your actions if you have free will? (This is why I reject a libertarian concept of free-will, though I belong to the libertarian political party - I'll explain that later.) It seems that all too often to me Christians are more concerned with how God can help them, than with understanding who God is. It's almost as if (By the way Di your quote from Tozar, is completely opposite of what I'm ranting against.) we only care about God as long as He is relevant to us. Of course God is relevant, He is the transcendent being who created us. How could knowing about the being who created us not be relevant? I'm just baffled at the self-centered nature of American Christians, it's an epidemic. I know I struggle with it, but I think that I realize that God does not exist to make my life easier or to assist me, but I exist to serve God and to have the privilige of working alongside God to bring more glory to Him. This is God's plan for me - so I know what God's plan is for my life and that is to serve Him. Yet if I don't serve God, He will find someone else who will serve Him. God doesn't need me, and as soon as Christians realize this, they will begin to live differently - I hope, at least this is my prayer.