Tag: plans

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Daily Post

Best Laid Plans

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, Jeremiah 29:11-14 (New International Version)

I have been frustrated lately by plans.  The ineffectiveness of my plans, the impact of other people’s plans on me and the seemingly lack of control that I might have in the goings on around me.  The toll of daily life can distract you from the fact that God does have a plan for you and he will use you.

Over this past weekend, while I continued to be in a stupor about my plans,  I received an email from a good friend from work.  I had been wondering why he was not on line Friday, as we had some items were where debating and I was searching for him via instant message.  Well, turns out he had had a heart attack on Thursday afternoon, and subsequently underwent major heart surgery on Monday. And then there’s Monday.  On Monday morning, I awoke to the news about a teenager who had a diving accident over the weekend and was potentially paralyzed.  A few hours later I would discover that I knew this family.

WOW, so as this week has continued, I thought about how immediately and urgently their plans had been changed.  Then there’s a third friend in her thirties who had a heart attack last month.  (Ok, it does seem that I am getting old – so and so is sick, so and so broke a hip, etc., I promise this blog will not turn into the gore report)

But seriously, these events were not in their plans – BELIEVE ME!  So how do we rationalize the verse in Jeremiah in fewer than 400 words?  Well, this week I have been trying to realize that God’s plan for us may not be as clear as “Go here and to this for 2 days and then go here and do that for 2 weeks, and then spend a year in this city”.  I think God’s plan for us is worked out in the mundane, normal, drama filled life.  God’s plan for the dude I mentioned yesterday is not nearly what he thought it might be.  God’s plan for the three individual’s above may be a little cloudy at the moment.  The same may go for you and me.  But the cool thing is there is a promise,  if you seek me, I will be found.

Today, let God work in your life, instead of working God into your life.  Give him your heart.

(That’s just less than 500 words, what do you think?)

Categories
Daily Post

Making Preparations

I was preparing to write about an entirely different topic, when I was checking to see if schools were closing hours before the first snow flake even was forming and I saw this classic poll on the front of my local news station:

You can't have snow with a cupboard full of bread and milk
You can't have snow with a cupboard full of bread and milk

Preparations and plans. Sometimes it’s important to make them.  Apparently, when winter weather strikes its even more important.   It’s always the running joke about hitting the grocery when winter weather approaches, and it always makes good news stories.  That and a story about the road crews loading up the salt and sand.  Winter in the South is fun stuff.  However I noticed yesterday on weather.com, more evidence of my government weather conspiracy plot.  Notice the green circle around Chattanooga!!!

Weather Channel Forcast
Anyway, since snow is once again the talk of the town, and yesterday’s post dealt remotely with the creation, I almost think this is an incredible image to try to conjure up in your mind.  The storehouses of snow.  I think it shows the mightiness and the greatness of the Lord.

20 “Have you ever traveled to where snow is made,
seen the vault where hail is stockpiled,
The arsenals of hail and snow that I keep in readiness
for times of trouble and battle and war?
Can you find your way to where lightning is launched,
or to the place from which the wind blows?
Who do you suppose carves canyons
for the downpours of rain, and charts
the route of thunderstorms
That bring water to unvisited fields,
deserts no one ever lays eyes on,
Drenching the useless wastelands
so they’re carpeted with wildflowers and grass?
And who do you think is the father of rain and dew,
the mother of ice and frost?
You don’t for a minute imagine
these marvels of weather just happen, do you? (Job 38:21-23, The Message)

and since we started with a little bit of planning, how about this verse to consider today:

3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do,
and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3 (NIV)

Enjoy the snow – if we get it!

( oh, by the way, the conspiracy theory is a joke -just a joke)