A Plan for a Man

It's interesting what God uses to remind me of His truth... 

Today I went with my family to see the movie "Adjustment Bureau", which (from what I hear) is provoking conversations about God and free will.  The movie itself is not very good... it's a poorly written, heavy-handed piece about a man who stumbles across a team of people whose job it is to make sure people live their lives according to "The Chairman's" plans.  It's an interesting concept, but could have been much better executed than it was.  (Wait till it comes to Netflix or Red Box to see it.)

Anyway... even though the movie wasn't very good, it got me thinking about God and His plans for us.  The underlying premise of the movie is that "The Chairman" (a character we never meet but who we are to assume, I'm pretty sure, is God) creates a plan for each person's life.  If they ever start to deviate from that plan, the adjustment team steps in to make... well... adjustments to get them back on track.  In a world where this is reality, there is no room for free will as the choices have already been made for you.  It removes a need for grace by removing the opportunity for mistakes.  It denies God the power to redeem our choices in order to "work all things together for the good of those who love him" (Romans 8:28).  If nothing else, this movie made me grateful for a God who has a plan but also allows me the free will to choose whether or not I want to be a part of it.

Thing is, the more I learn about God and about myself, the more I want to be a part of His plans.  I've recently been memorizing Jeremiah 29:11... you may know it... "'For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord. 'They are plans for good and not for disaster, plans to give you a future and a hope.'" (New Living Translation)  I know for a fact that I can't say the same of my own plans for my life.  I'm fairly certain they won't lead to disaster, but given my track record, I'm not completely sure.  I would much rather trust the One who can see my future and knows not only what's best for me, but also how it will fit in with what's best for the world around me.

Case in point: one of my greatest desires is to be a wife and a mom, to have a family of my own.  To be honest, according to my own plans for this area of my life, I'd be married and have a few kids by now.  But that isn't the case.  In fact, I haven't even been on a date.  There have been many times I've wanted to just do whatever was needed to make a guy interested in me so I could carry out my plan.  In the process, I would have given up a lot of things that would have prevented my plan from leading to disaster.  I would have wound up with nothing but heartbreak because of my own issues as well as the issues of any guy I would have gone after.  Instead, God has patiently taught me to wait on His plan, to wait for someone who fits His description of a good husband so our relationship can prosper.  I admit that I haven't waited patiently or perfectly... but God has graciously redeemed my mistakes and used them to teach me why I'm waiting.  Here... listen to someone who can articulate it much better than I...

I'm waiting for the kind of man who speaks with the wisdom of Solomon, who leads like Moses, who has faith like Abraham and trusts the word of God like Daniel, who inspires like Paul, who has a heart for God like David's, whose attention for detail is like Noah's, whose willingness to abandon it all for God is like the disciples', and whose ability to love sacrificially and unconditionally is like Christ's.  I'm sticking to God's plan... not because He forces me to, but because I choose to.  And I choose to because I know it's the best plan... a plan for my good... a plan to give me a future and a hope.