for i know the plans i have for you...

"For i know the plans i have for you, 'says the Lord.' They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

i like this verse a lot. i like to put it on graduation cards and photo albums. i like to use it when someone is at a new stage in their life and needs to be reminded that God is in control or to trust that things will be okay. i put this verse on the front of a photo album to my friend one time. he was in a really hard stage in life and was moving on to new things. i wanted to encourage him and remind him of all the amazing things God had done through him and would do in his future. he died from drug abuse a year later.

"for i know the plans i have for you..." it sounds so nice, makes you feel all warm and cozy inside. i don't use that verse near as much anymore. i think of that photo album a lot.

you see that verse didn't lose it's truth for me, i just gained new meaning and understanding of it. i think i gained a much truer meaning. see God does know the plans He has for you and me. plans for hope and a future. but those plans aren't always the same as our plans for our lives or what we will choose to live out. they weren't in my friend's case. in his case he fought a drug addiction he never got a hold of. our plans don't always involve leaving the path that we're on to follow God's path for our lives instead. and when they don't, i think we drastically misconstrue this verse to make us feel like OUR plans will all work out and be just fine regardless of the fact that we're no where near the path that we're supposed to be on in life or headed straight for destruction.

i've learned a lot about plans in the past few years. that's what your 20's are for right? making plans, breaking plans, figuring out the plans for your life. well God's plans didn't fit into my mine very well. not even a little bit. in fact His plans didn't include any the plans i had for my life. this comes as quite a shock at 23 when you are busy "planning" out your life, graduating from college, and preparing to live out your future. now i'll never act like i really had that much figured out for the road ahead, but everything God had in mind for my life definitely would not have found it's way into my "plan" for life.

i feel like instead of the mapped out future that we attempt to come up with, i got handed two sheets of paper; two game plans.
Mine: lots of question marks and arrows that go in a million different directions.
God's: pretty much a blank sheet of paper that just said "El Paso, Casas por Cristo, GO."
that was all i got. that and an impending ulcer and feeling of my stomach in my throat every time i took a breath. these are the moments when that verse comes in handy, "for i know the plans i have for you Britt. I do. you don't."

and so began my journey of Jeremiah 29:11. the story of my life. people get frustrated sometimes because i'm not much of a planner. but when you have your whole world turned upside down and life becomes more about questions than answers, you begin to lose that great need to plan out anything very concretely. this verse is not about promising a life of ease or comfort or everything falling into place without disease or death. it is about trusting God's plans enough to follow His above our own, even when we don't understand why. and trusting in His promise that His plans are for hope, and a future, for good and not for harm; whether we think we know where either road leads or not. that was never the point. His plans. not yours. remember?
and somedays that promise is all i have.