Jeremiah 29:11
"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."

Wendy and I have built a house once. Well, we didn't actually build it, but you knew what I meant! It was an awesome experience that we loved: driving out each evening to see the progress (or lack of it), walking through the walls and seeing a plan on a piece of paper taking shape, finally moving in! It was one of the neatest things we've done and we'd love to do it again. There's just something about seeing a plan work that is exciting. The verse this week talks about a plan, too. I got to thinking about why our lives so often don't match up to what God has on the blueprints and it seemed to be fairly obvious...

We smudge the plans.

God gives us a glimpse of the blueprint. He unrolls them on the hood of our car and, hardhats in place, begins to point out what we're seeing. "Now here I want to put in a family room." "Over here," He continues, "will be the study where you and I will meet daily." On and on He goes, explaining every detail and every room. And then, we get involved. Instead of allowing the contractor to finish the plan, we take the plan, shove it in our back pocket and tell everyone that God has a plan for our lives. We pull out the plans and show our family (see what happened when Joseph did that!) and our friends. We occasionally spill some coffee on it, or a drop of jelly falls out of the doughnut or some ink smears. And when it's all said and done, none of the plan matches reality because we took the plans away from the One Who can bring them to life.

Don't you think it may be time to hand the blueprints back and let the Contractor get on with the business of building? He's good at it, and when we let Him have the plans for our lives, we will be prospered and we will have hope.

Smudges, stains and jelly drops, God can still make sense of His plans for your life. So go on...

...hand them back.