God's Plan...

After two posts on the south, I think I'm going to switch gears a little bit and talk about life and Christianity. I have come to see life as kind of like a Bob Ross painting. If you've ever watched Bob paint on PBS, then you may know what I mean. He starts off by painting this beautiful scenery portrait. Its got a lake, big blue sky, a "happy" little rock, and a nice cottage. It's perfect, it's exceptional, it's just as it should be, seemingly finished. But then out of nowhere he makes a long black line running from the top right of the painting down to the bottom. Why? What is he thinking? Then he starts adding to it, a little highlight for bark, some branches, some leaves. When he's done, the painting isn't what it was. No, it's become richer, fuller, the dominance of the recently added oak tree brings a new dimension to it.

The thing is, while he's painting the oak tree, it's hard to see how it benefits the painting much at all. When he's finished, that's when it becomes so much clearer. I think God acts much the same way in my life as Bob Ross does with his paintings. Recently things seemed to be going really well, neigh perfect. Then in one fell swoop things went completely wrong. Well they seemed to go wrong. Like I said, it's hard to appreciate the oak tree when its still a big black line on a seemingly perfect painting. However, I know that God put me in this situation for a reason. Someone I care a lot about one time shared with me the passage from Jeremiah 29:11. I had read this passage before, but then they pointed out the previous verse, which I had never noticed:

"The truth is that you will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. 11For 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 29:10-11 (NLT)

The trials that do us the most good in this life are never easy. They may take 70 years, 7 years, or just a year. But for those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ, we can have faith in the fact that no matter what happens God will always have a plan for us. I have no clue where God is taking me right now. But for the first time in a while I'm ok with that, even at peace. I have faith that one day this will all make sense, that this big black line will begin to fill in and become what I can't even imagine now. To finish this post, I think I'll leave you all with the lyrics to an awesome Matthew West song from his album Happy:

There You go changing my plans again
There You go shifting my sands again
For reasons I don't understand again
Lately I don't have a clue
Just when I start liking what I see
There You go changing my scenery
I never know where You're taking me
But I'm trying just to follow You

Chorus:
It's out of my hands
It's out of my reach
It's over my head
And it's out of my league
There's too many things
That I don't understand
So it's into Your will
And it's out of my hands

There You go healing these scars again
Showing me right where You are again
I'm helpless, and that's where I start again
I'm giving it all up to You
~Out of My Hands, Matthew West