Tag Archives: planning

That’s the plan

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Let God be the planner.  That’s it.  Sounds easy but not really!  Not for control freaks anyway.

I come up with all sorts of ideas and plans, many of which I take to Him, kind of like a worker approaching a supervisor, holding up a clipboard.  “See? this is why my plan is a good one and why You should make it happen,” said the Mimi wearing her “Holy Spirit Jr.” hat.  I usually do have lots of good reasons, seriously.  But God always has the best plan.

I don’t always understand it or the way things turn out sometimes.  I do believe, with all my heart, that He keeps His promise of working good out of every situation for the one who loves Him and follows Him.  (Romans chapter 8 – awesome truth!)

It appears God will have to remind me a number of times (make that a very large number) that my focus should be drawing near to Him and dwelling in His presence.  It’s very simple, but I forget just about every other day.  I keep reverting back to planning and trying to fix and contemplating tomorrow with furrowed brow.  Meanwhile, this day is passing by and I am missing some blessings and/or opportunities that He planned for me.

My goal is to spend time every morning just being with Him.  I read my devotions and Bible verses but I need to spend more time just being, just listening, just loving, just pondering, just keeping my mouth shut and my mind open to Him.  I need to spend more time trying to learn who He is, looking for Him in the moments that are flowing by me, like water in a stream flows around the rocks.

Do you struggle with the doing vs. being battle like I do?  Walking closely with Jesus so that I can follow each move and hear each word He says – that’s my only plan.  He’ll take care of the rest.

The Lord will work out his plans for my life—
    for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever.  Psalm 138:8

Welcome

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Four vehicles full of people from our new church drove 4 hours Saturday morning to come get us and our things, loaded up our stuff in trailers, trucks and vans all day, then drove with us 4 hours back to Illinois.  They had a yummy home-cooked dinner waiting when we got to town, so we could all recharge before unloading the truck late into the night.  We actually had fun and they seemed glad to do it all.

They had cleaned and scrubbed and fixed up our new house until it sparkled and gleamed.  They had filled the fridge and cupboards with groceries, put up new shower curtains and bath mats, set out kleenex, hand soap, toilet paper, you name it.  We were hooked up right from the start.  The message was loud and clear: “we want you here!”

We could tell they had spent hours before we came preparing and planning for our arrival and it made us feel so special and at home.

Today, John and I tried out the local Qdoba and were treated so warmly.  That may sound funny, but it really was an exceptionally welcoming, smiling crew who looked like they were having fun and enjoyed their work.  It made us want to go back, and soon.

There’s a lot to be said about making an intentional effort to welcome someone.  If we would open up our hearts and arms in churches and put that much effort into preparing for and welcoming people who are new and may have never gone to church before we’d probably see a lot of them come back because they felt as if we really meant it: we want them there with us.  They would feel welcome.

 

(I have to also give a shout out to the lovely friends from our old church who were able to come help on Saturday with our move, too. We love you!)