The Plan!

The Three Maji

Have you ever pondered the plan? You know, the plan for our life. I mean five years ago the plan was simple and direct. Preacher man was Alex the heating, AC and customer service king. I was queen of the soup kitchen and life was pretty good. We could afford to take yearly vacations, had a great house, tons of friends, heavily involved in the church and were pretty much set to live our lives in Durango Colorado. Then God... have you ever heard that before? Then God...is always followed by something that blows your mind, or in our case, our lives, out of the water! Then God spoke to Alex and told him about His plan to turn him into Preacher man (and me into Preacher man's wife). Ever since then life has been anything but simple and direct. 


Jesus also has this way lately of shutting doors really fast! Bam, and they're shut. They use to linger open for a while and we could run in and out of them to see if we really wanted to go through them. I was asked to work the next women's walk to Emmaus sometime last month and was looking forward to it coming up in March. I got an email yesterday stating when the meetings were and saw the door starting to close. I could make it to one meeting out of three. So, I told the Lay Director and she said she would need to replace me. Bam! I also really wanted the job at Loving Choice's and at first thought the door was being opened by Jesus. Bam, and it was shut.


Yet, there are doors that are remaining open and those are the ones that we will keep going through. One is my job at the Creek. From the get go, I have been ready for something to twist me up and cause me to quit, but it hasn't happened. They are short four hour shifts, mainly, and they are right in the middle of the day which for some reason has worked out. Master Gardener seems to be another door that is staying open, which I am still very excited about.


In Mark 1:17 Jesus emphasizes that there is a process to the matter of becoming disciples. He says "and I will make you" Steve Harper says in original Greek it is a double statement: "and I will make you to become". Jesus is the "maker" and we are the "becomers". This is the divine production process and we must remember that nothing happens quickly, and nothing happens once and for all. 


So, the Preacher man and I are in a divine production process, becoming what Jesus is making us into. When Jesus shuts a door, I would think twice about trying to open it on your own. This is the lesson we are learning and relearning as we spend our time here in Rogers. We won't stay here forever, we know that, but we hope to stay here long enough to walk through the doors that are being opened by Jesus. When we hear the Bam, we will see it as Jesus shutting the door, not on our hopes and dreams, but on something that He doesn't want us to be about becoming.

A Prayer for Choosing

What we choose

changes us.

Who we love

transforms us.

How we create

remakes us.

So in all our choosing,

O God, make us wise;

in all our loving,

O Christ, make us bold;

in all our creating,

O Spirit, give us courage;

in all our living

may we become whole.

Jan Richardson