Pastor's Weekly Word

 

Are you a planner? Even if you aren’t, you have to admit that having a plan often helps in life. Last week the church staff spent all morning planning out the calendar through the end of this year. In a couple of weeks we will sit down again to brainstorm major things for the first half of 2020. We have learned to plan ahead.

 

When we first attempted it, the exercise seemed somewhat daunting. “Why do we need to plan that far out?” we thought. “Too many things change between now and then,” we would say. But let me tell you, once we got used to it, we found that our anxiety went down. We are all much calmer knowing there is a plan and that we now get to enjoy living out the details. It has actually changed the way we work and how much we feel we are capable of accomplishing.

 

When the Israelite people were living in Babylon in exile from Jerusalem, God tells them, “I have plans for you, plans for your welfare, plans to give you a future with hope.” It was meant to give them assurance, and it continues to assure us even today. We can be assured that God has planned far into the future, way beyond what we think possible. We can rest easy knowing that God has us in mind when mapping out all that is to be. The plans we make are but a small glimpse into the life of God whose eternal plans include reach way beyond our ability to comprehend. God includes us in the plan, and we get the joy of faithfully living out the details.