Not the Way I Planned

THIS WEEK I am starting my second year of college, getting ready to dive into the four new classes that start in a couple days. I just came home from an awesome Christian dance party with the best friends I have ever had, and my feet hurt. I feel blessed.

This past week I was at a Spirit-filled retreat with other students from all over Florida. We were there to be trained and taught about evangelism, discipleship, and just loving people. We became such close friends so fast. It's beautiful how people can be unified when we are parts of the body of Christ. And it's exactly the same with us at school. We are all celebrating the same God together.

So far this year, God has repeatedly replaced my plans and given me opportunities to grow closer to Him and to the people He has put in my life. Time after time, there was something I wanted to do with Him that He would switch out for something else I hadn't considered. The result is that I have grown and seen more this year so far than I ever have before.

It reminds me of Jeremiah 33:3, one of my life verses: "Call to Me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known."

For example, I planned to go to the huge Campus Harvest convention in North Carolina that I went to last year. I love the passionate worship and the prayer and fellowship. Speakers come and give glorious testimonies to God's power to save, and we all leave wanting to give God our all. But it was too expensive for me this year, and it conflicted with other things. So God opened up the opportunity to go to the CRU Women's Retreat instead. He is so infinitely wise. He knew that it would be exactly what I needed to see an area where I was falling short. I didn't understand the depth of his love, and so I was feeling lonely. Now when I think about Him, I think of the ocean and how He wraps us up in more love than we know what to do with. He softened my heart in a way that made me rely on Him more completely than I think Campus Harvest could have.

Then summer came, and I didn't get to go back to Peru on a mission trip like last year, to see the people I met there and go witness to students. I was very disappointed. It just wasn't feasible for me at the same time as the school year was ending. Instead I found myself on a different team, leading a team of children in a Vacation Bible School first at my home church and then in Miami. The testimonies from Peru blew me away. A blind boy received sight, and God saved a lot of souls. But I got to meet Adam, a six year old who could understand that he and Jesus were separated, and who was so overjoyed to learn how that separation could be fixed. I got to talk to little souls and see how precious they are, and understand how God sees us, and my faith became more like a child's - persistent and dependent. He takes care of us.

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declared the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

It kept happening. I wanted to get a job or an internship for the summer, but I couldn't get a hold of one. So I went to volunteer in my neighborhood one day and ran into one of the women in charge, who asked about my major. When I said that I study architecture, she connected me to a volunteer position with the neighborhood preservation group, which effectively became like an intership for me. I got to see old files on buildings in my own area, most close to a century old. It's something I can put on a resume, not to mention a terrific learning experience.

Now, instead of being able to make it to CRU's Leadership training days this week, which I would have loved to be a part of, I got trained in discipleship at a different retreat, got prephesied over, and by God's grace leapt over the walls that have kept me from carrying this message to people more actively. I finally see that God is not waiting for me to be "able" but "available," as one of the pastors explained. And again, instead of living where I planned with three friends from my life group, which would have been awesome if there had been room for us, I have "accidentally" ended up directly across the hall from my new friend who just became a Christian during the Spring! Time after time, my ideas are good, but God's are better. And I end up being blessed much more by things not working out my way.

Now I'm back at school with a great sense of expectation. But of what exactly, I'm not sure. You see, I know God is going to keep doing these things - setting up divine appointments, changing my plans, straining beauty out of frustrating circumstances. I know He is going to save people and keep training us in how to reach our friends with the Gospel. But I know that the way He is going to do it is much better than any picture I have in my head of what it looks like for salvation to sweep over the campus. Our job is to deepen our relationships with people to the point that we are not completely comfortable, make sure they know they are loved, tell them the story of the way the Savior saved us. He asks us to jump on board, because He is already at work on something new and surprising.

Romans 8:28 "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose."