I Need to be Committed

I love a good plan. At the end of each day, I fill out my planner/calendar for the next day. First thing in the morning, I check my planner and email to see if I need to add anything; if priorities need to be rearranged. Today's blog post is a rearrangement. I am at it early. Today I have back-to-back video meetings beginning at 9am and I hope to be done by 2pm. Since the meetings were not scheduled by me, but they are meetings I need to attend, my daily schedule was changed. I have learned (and had to re-learn) that without planning, and making a list and checking it twice, I forget things or worse, double book myself. I like a routine. I wish God would do a better job of planning my life.

On a day that it is heavily planned and rearranged, I find it interesting that the scripture my study time led me to is Jeremiah 29:11-14. This scripture is one of the most quoted and often misrepresented in the Bible.

11 For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, 14 I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

I love the idea that God has my life, day-to-day mapped out. My life will be perfect because of God's plan for me. But, God has a plan for His children, much like the plans parents have for their children. A parent's plan is a big, long range plan for life. Maybe it began as a day-to-day schedule, but from conception, most parents look to the future for their child. God's plan is more about looking to our future and very little about micromanaging our day-to-day. God's hope is that as we live in Him, we will follow his teachings and guidance and in that we have hope for our future. 

God is there for us, that is how the plan works. When we pray - He will listen. When we need Him and look for Him - He will be found by us. In other words, God is saying I am committed to you in your days, in your life.

How does God sitting back, letting me plan, help me out? I am a flawed human, with an ego-centric mind housed in a personality that loves checking off a list of "to-dos". Experience tells me that my ways are not always God's ways. I can easily get my nose so close to the grindstone that I no longer have a nose with which to to stop and smell the roses. You could be the opposite, skipping through life like a free spirited critter, enjoying the flowers you pass but never manage to accomplish any forward movement in life. Either way, we are created for a purpose. Finding that balance to be purposeful is what is difficult.

Wise King Solomon may have an answer. he wrote a proverb that says, "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans." Ah ha, there it is. It is all in what claims my commitment, your commitment. I guess I will look back at my list and see what it tells me about where my commitment lie, in the world, progress or in God, Perfection.

Today:

• Examine your commitments
• Shift your priorities
• Enjoy the April Showers - I am looking forward to May flowers