our plans vs. god's plans

el plan - [el pl-ah-n]
spanish for "plan".

I've been here for nearly four full years now. I left for the DR on September 15, 2010, as a 23 year old single girl thinking I'd be gone for 3 years and that I'd live and work for Young Life in the large city of Santiago.
Instead, four years later, I'm married and living in the mountain town of Jarabacoa, and, while I still work for Young Life (in a different city than originally planned), I've recently started working on my Masters through an online seminary program.

Our plans aren't always God's plans.

If it had been up to me- asking my 18 year old self what the next ten years would look like- my life would have been very different. I would have met someone in college and married him a week after graduation. We would have moved to the Dominican Republic right away so I could work for Young Life. Certainly, we would have moved back to the Chicago suburbs by now and had at least one or two kids. Maybe we'd own a house and a dog. The details start to get fuzzy around the projected age of 28.

But our plans aren't always God's plans.

I'm 27 and a half. I don't have a dog (although I can't wait to have a golden retriever!) and I don't own a house. While I want to have kids someday, the idea of having them right now seems crazy. I can't imagine my life without Brad, who, incidentally, I did not meet in college, but a year after graduation when I was living at my parent's house, waiting tables and fundraising to be on Young Life staff in the Dominican Republic. (Living at home and working at a restaurant also wasn't in my original plan.) I'm still in the DR and in a year, I don't know exactly where we'll be.

Like I said, our plans aren't always God's plans.

And looking back, I'm glad that they're not. Brad keeps saying that his life is like a fine wine: it's just getting better with age. And while there have been bumps- and even huge potholes- along the road, I'm happy to say that God knew way better than I did when God was planning my life. The verse from Jeremiah 29:11 was my favorite in high school: "'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 a hope and a future.'" Oh, how I want to always know that is true and rest in the hope and goodness of our great God. It's hard, but I'm trying.

Does anybody else feel that way? Has anybody else been blindsided by the goodness of God's plans?


written by Emily