Growing up, I was a “go with the flow” person. As I’ve gotten involved in more activities, however, that has changed. I have dance team practice, praise team, choir rehearsal, student council, and two jobs to balance. And that’s in addition to homework and making time for friends and family. Staying organized is key to managing all of those things. I carry a planner with me at school and have an online planner for my phone and laptop. I need details for my commitments: dates, times, locations, who will be there, what to bring, how to dress, etc.
Being a planner is great, until something happens that you weren’t planning on. When there is a disruption to my plan, it throws me off. Even little things going wrong can ruin my day.
Growing up in a Christian community, the verse Jeremiah 29:11 was frequently quoted by people. It says, “‘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.’” I’ll be honest, I never paid much attention to this verse until recently. I was having a lot of uncertainty and anxiety about the future. Where will I go to college? Do want to go to college? Who will I marry? Where will I live? Will the friends I have now be around in a few years? All of these questions were flooding my mind. I needed to know the plan! I only have two years left of high school to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.
All of these “unknowns” were terrifying. Then one night, while in tears, God placed Jeremiah 29:11 on my heart. He reminded me:
He knows the plans for my future.
His plans for me are far greater than I could ever imagine.
He has planned out every little detail of my life.
I like to believe I have it all figured out. The truth is I don’t know what my life will look like 6 months from now. The girl I was a year ago would have laughed had you told her how that year would play out. I was comfortable with myself and had parts of my future planned out. Now, a year later, many things I thought I had figured out have changed. My entire friend group has changed. I am not dating the boy I was then. I am working a different job. What I thought was neatly organized and planned out wasn’t. I wasn’t in control. God had different plans than I did. I needed to release control of things. I needed to realize in the midst of the change and loss, that God was in control and was actually blessing me in the midst of all those changes.
Looking back at so many situations in my life, I can see how God had a plan. My mom has always told me that “God will not take something out of your life unless He is going to replace it with something better. It might feel like the end of the world right now, but He is going to blow your mind someday.” While I used to roll my eyes at her, this has been proven to be true time and time again.
I may not be able to plan out and control every detail of my life as much as I would like to. But how incredible and reassuring is it that the creator of the heavens and the earth is also the creator of my future? I will continue to color code my calendar and carry around my planner. But I am learning to rest in the fact that God knows every little detail about my future. And that is enough for me. Will you rest in His plan for you?