God has a plan, it just dont make sense

I don't want to be cliche and say this freshman year of college has been like an emotional and spiritual roller coaster, but there have certainly been ups and downs along the way.  While I've let my emotions take control at times, thanks to the accountability of friends and my bible study, I've seen a steady uphill growth in my walk with Christ.  Praise be to God for that.

My word of advice for any high school senior about to open a new chapter in their life is to GET CONNECTED.  I think this looks a little different for everyone, but for me, it involved finding an on-campus ministry like Cru.  Being connected through friends who genuinely care about you and a ministry that wants to deepen your relationship with Jesus help, like a lot.  It's just something you dont even realize how beneficial it is until you dont have it anymore.  I'm not trying to advertise Cru or anything, that's just the one I'm involved with.

A reoccurring theme this semester for me has been trying to figure out Gods plan. Actually, this has been an something I've been trying to figure out my whole life. We all know the verse in Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." (ESV) If this verse is new to you, the gist of it is God is in control. The God of the universe, the God of heaven and earth, of good and evil, the God that breathed out stars, that same God has a plan and purpose for your life. And it's a good plan. Wow, that takes my breath away a little bit.

"The Pillars of Creation" (left pillar is 7 light years long)

But still I'm left asking the question "What is my plan?" I want to know the details, I want to figure everything out. I've come to learn the problem with this way of thinking is that we cant just 'reason out' Gods plan for us. Around the beginning of this semester I was starting to think it all made sense. I had Gods plan figured out, I knew exactly who I would be with, and what kind of person I would end up as. I would look back on things that had happened to me in the past and say "well that made perfect sense because I now I'm here doing this. I now know why God did X and Y." Just recently, God turned that way of thinking on its head.

God's plan does not really make sense.  It's unexpected, rude, hilarious, frustrating and at times strange.  To really make any sense of it, we have to look at the big picture.  Like the picture above.  (Get it, big picture, because the picture is of something really big but its also a saying).  The omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient God, made every single star, and planned out when each would die and be born.  He did the same  for every single human that has been born, or ever will be born on this planet.  God isn't just shaping us into who we are going to be next week or next month.  He is also not just shaping us into who we will be in 20, 30 years.  He is shaping all mankind for what it will be in a thousand years, a million years.  When you look at the big picture, it makes perfect sense.

I look back on my freshman year on all that has happened, I can hardly make any sense out of half of it.  But I do know that I came through it all closer and more knowledgeable of God.  Stay thirsty my friends.  Or not. John 4:14.