Many years ago before I came to know the Lord I used to think Christians were boring – they just didn’t have any fun. The few times a year we went to church with my family when I was young were just that – boring!!!
And the kids I went to school with who went to church? Well I avoided them like the plague because really – what dull lives they must lead! I thought their lives consisted of “do this, don’t do that.” I wanted to go have fun – go hang out with the “in” crowd and party!
But you see God has a plan for my life – just like he does yours.
Stephen Curtis Chapman has a song entitled “The Great Adventure” (Sparrow Records SPD1328, 1992 – lyrics by Geoff Moore). The chorus goes like this:
Let’s follow our Leader
Into the glorious unknown
This is life like no other
This is the great adventure.
I have to say a big AMEN to that!
So how many of your lives have turned out just the way you had planned? Did you marry your high school sweetheart, have the required 2.5 kids, and now live in a beautiful brick house with a white picket fence? Maybe some of you have, (except hopefully not the 2.5 kids), and that’s awesome!
However for the majority of us, that is simply not the case.
Yikes – how prideful we are! Perhaps I need to clarify that a bit and say, how prideful I’ve been… I thought I had the bull by the horns.
As many of you know, my husband Gary and I didn’t start a family until we had been married for 10 years. And then I had my plan: 2 boys, 2 years apart. There was no question in my mind – that was how it was going to all work out.
But you see, that wasn’t God’s plan. God’s plan was to bring me to Him – to really show me what true joy and peace was.
Well my plan started out perfectly – we had our first son – a strong, strapping baby boy. Perfect, I thought. Then in just the correctly prescribed time period I got pregnant again – yippee! However at my OB/GYN checkup, the doctor declared to us that we were going to have twins!
How did I take the news? I fell apart… I couldn’t handle twins – how could I handle twins and then still provide the quality care for our young son at home? I started yelling at the doctor, and throughout the pregnancy had a horrible attitude.
So now, let’s fast forward a bit.
Suffice it to say things started to go wrong early on in this pregnancy, and our twin boys were born at 31 weeks. Additional complications arose during the successive months, whereby we lost one of the twins.
Then 5 months after that, our 2 year-old son fell asleep at night never to wake up again on this earth.
But then what happened next? I FOUND JESUS!!!
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV) states:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Yes, sometimes I wonder if things would have worked out differently if I would have known and trusted Him years earlier, but you know what? It doesn’t matter! What matters is that I discovered a love in Jesus that is so strong and powerful that I now know without a doubt that I am going to be with Him in heaven someday, and I’m going to be with my deceased sons again too!
So…
Saddle up your horses
We’ve got a trail to blaze
Through the wild blue yonder of God’s amazing grace
Let’s follow our leader into the glorious unknown
This is the life like no other
This is the great adventure.
(Stephen Curtis Chapman, The Great Adventure, id.)
The God Of All Comfort 