Today at church the sermon was about God’s plan. I’m probably like most people and was immediately asking the question in my head, “Yeah, what is God’s plan for my life.” It didn’t take very long to get the answer.
God’s plan is bigger than my life. While God cares about me, and his plans include me, his plan is not for me. God’s plan, since the foundations of the universe, has always been to bring the universe back into harmony – to have fellowship with him again.
His plan is not to bring me back into fellowship with him, or even all of humanity. He wants nothing less than to bring everything in the entire universe back into fellowship with him. That’s a big plan, and my life looks pretty small compare to it.
So what is God’s plan for my life? I always seem to come back to that. Again I didn’t have very long to wait. God’s plan for my life is to use me as part of his plan for the whole universe. He has a plan to use me to bring harmony back.
Okay, now I’m worried. How could God use me to bring harmony to the whole universe? Of course the problem is that I keep thinking more of myself than I should. God is not going to use just me, he going to use me and a billion billion other things to bring about harmony.
Is my part important, of course. Can he do it without me? Sure. He could probably do it a lot easier without me. But doing it without me, without the other billion billion things, would defeat the whole plan. By using me and all the other people and things as part of his plan, before we bring harmony to the universe, he will have brought harmony to us.
The speaker told of a story of missionaries who went to a small island before going out to spread God’s word. “Okay, that seems strange,” I said to myself. They went to the island so they could experience the tides. The rhythm of the tides made the island what it is today. The constant rising and falling formed its coast line. The continual beating of the waves formed its beaches.
The missionaries went there to watch the tide so they would remember that there lives have been formed by the rhythms of life. A they leave the island, they would remember that there will be high and lows; there will be a constant stream of waves hitting them. And this is how it should be, for it is these rhythms are what make them who they are.
Knowing this they will also remember that the rhythms that they bring to their own lives will shape them. They will remember that it is important to pray – everyday – multiple times everyday – in a rhythmic way everyday, that by going to God in prayer everyday, it will keep them focused on who’s mission they are on. By thanking God everyday, it will keep them focused on where their blessings come from.
The last reason to go to an island before going out to be a missionary was so that they could experience God’s grace. “Grace on and Island,” I said to myself. Grace is a hard thing to explain. I don’t know if I agree with what the speaker said, but I know that what he said is part of grace.
Grace is that time, when for reasons that have no explanations, God comes to an individual and offers an invitation to join Him. God calls individuals, not just to rescue them, but, to invite them into a community. The missionaries come together on a deserted island to find community before they go off into the world. The strength of the knowledge, the knowledge that they are not alone, that there are others that are praying for them, that there are others that need their prayers, gives them a sense of peace in the midst of the highs and the lows, in the midst of the beating waves that they know will be waiting for them once they leave.
Being together, all knowing that they are doing their own small part in Gods gigantic plan, helps them keep perspective, and allows God’s fellowship and harmony be something that is real in their lives, so that when they go out into the world to share about God’s plan for harmony, the people they talk to will see it in their lives as a testimony of God’s plan.
So what is God’s plan for my life? To have fellowship with Him. To live in harmony with Him. To be loved by him. To live in harmony and have fellowship with others – to love others – so that when I tell them of God’s love and his desire for harmony and fellowship, I will be telling them with my words what they can already see in my life.
As I left church I thought about those words. God’s plan for me is to be a living example of his love, his fellowship, and he harmony. Sounds like a pretty good plan to me.