for one more day

I recently finished reading For One More Day by Mitch Albom.  Check out the following excerpt (the narrator speaking of his father):

"The funny thing is, he wasn't religious himself...  when it came to me, the only thing I had to worship was baseball.  He was pitching to me before I could walk.  He gave me a wooden bat before my mother let me use scissors.  He said I could make the major leagues one day if I had 'a plan', and if I 'stuck to the plan'.  Of course, when you're that young, you nest in your parents' plans, not your own.  And so, from the time I was seven years old, I scanned the newspaper for the box scores of my future employers."

Can you relate to this idea of nesting in someone else's plans?  It has been easy for me to follow in my sister's footsteps or take steps toward the life my parents have envisioned for me.  But over the last few months God has been teaching me about finding my identity in Him and seeking out His plans.  Romans 12:4-6 says, "For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us."

God has created and gifted each of us uniquely!  And we each have our own role to play in God's story.  Here's the cool thing, God promises us in Jeremiah 29:11 that he has “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

God gifted us when he created us.  He has plans for us and has already prepared works for us to do.  The good news is, all we have to do is be receptive to that.  It's easy to get caught up in someone else's plan or even our own plans.  So my prayer for you and for me is that we wouldn't get caught up in the plans of men, but that we would seek out and get caught up in the plans of God.