Plans

We make plans. Complicated and simple, creative and obvious, our plans range from the smallest of things - what to wear today- to the largest of our short lifetimes - where we will be in 10 years, what we will do in 20 years, and who we will be in 50 years. Recently though, I've been learning what my brain has been taught for years - that our best laid plans are simply drawings in the sand. Prone to shift when the wind changes, blurred by the passage of time. And I'm starting to learn instead that what I need to do is to focus on the present. Yes, prepare for the future, but not necessarily set up and cling to plans. Yes, work hard and think ahead to be ready, but not only ready for what I think is important, but for whatever may come my way. Instead of putting everything on hold for the future, living in the here and now so that I am able to live the life that I have been called to live. Living in the present so that I can invest in people, learn to love the way God loves, and serve Him with whatever it is I do already have. As I look for opportunities to serve with the skills and talents I have right now, I'm realizing how small my problems are. Realizing that people can't afford medical treatment that costs only a few dollars. Realizing just how little a month's worth of wages can be for people in some parts of the world. And instead of just learning about it, I want to do something with what I have been given. Do something with the resources I have and to take action instead of just letting their stories go in one ear and out the other. I want to do something with the enormous blessings that I have been given, to pass it on in whatever manner I can. To be the little boy who gave his five loaves of bread and two fish to God, believing that no matter how small the offering I bring, He can use it to touch the lives of many. I'm not sure what or where I will be called to be in the future, but I know that I am a work in progress and who I am at the end of everything will matter more than how much money I made, how comfortable my life was, or how famous I was.

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. 

-- Philippians 1:6