11 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. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
It has been an incredibly long summer, and with school just around the corner (some of you are already in it!), I wanted to take a little time and get away. Now if you have spent much time with me at all, you know that some of the closest people to me are my cousins. CB (claire bear) is starting her senior year in a few days, and I figured there would be no better place to spend some time away than with her.
Early this morning I loaded up and pulled out to head to Flatonia, TX. See, my uncle has about 100 acres there, and we were going to 4wheel our little hearts out. The morning started out with me getting my truck stuck in the mud, then CB got her atv stuck too. Uncle John pulled my truck out, then went to help get the atv. Well, he got stuck too. I then proceeded to pull him out. Then good ole Dale came out and pulled out the atv. Go figure. Anyways, our luck was a bit weak at this point, so we decided to call it a day in the clay pit and head back to town.
We met up with some of our friends, Tyler & Morgan, and headed to Tylers property. Now, I had never been there, and when he threw me the keys and said, "just keep goin until the river, its the last gate before the bridge", I got a little freaked out. This is totally unchartered territory. But the directions were good, and we made it. Then came Tyler and Morgan with their atvs in tow. All of that to get to the "good part" of the story.
Tyler led us down this path to what looked like a beach. It was a dry creek bed. Praise God. No Mud! We were so excited to just play around. Everyone went their own direction, and it wasnt long before we were off exploring the creek. Morgan and I took off to the north and began following the twists and turns. Clipping along at a pretty decent pace, I was fairly comfortable with this track. Then, all of the sudden, the atv turned on its own. I followed along, since theres not a lot i could do to change this course.
See, what happened was the creek bed had some ruts and paths of its own. Sure I wanted to go the general direction the river was leading, but the river ruts took me EXACTLY where it wanted me to go.
As I drove home later in the day, I kept thinking about that. The above scripture came to mind. Sure, everyone knows Jeremiah 29:11. Its a coffee mug scripture. But what about the next verse? "12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." This reminds me of the creek bed. Sure the general direction of north is where I thought I should go, but it wasnt until I was actually following the twists and turns that the creek took hold of me and led me exactly where it wanted me.
I know, this is kind of a stretch of an illustration, but you get the idea. When we seek the Lord and place Him as our focal point, He will take hold of us and bring us to where He wants us to be.
As we prepare for centerpoint, the new student worship service, I ask, are you living a life centered on Him? What needs to change today for you to do that?
Wont you join us Sunday, Sept. 7 @ 6:00pm as we kick off centerpoint?
