The Old Testament On PurposeCampione

Plans are interesting things.

They are certainly important. You wouldn’t trust an architect who told you, “No, I don’t really have a plan for how I’m going to build your house but I’ll figure it out as I go along.” That would be horrible!

You wouldn’t trust a doctor who didn’t have a plan for your surgery. Even taking it down a level, most of us wouldn’t trust a taxi driver who didn’t have a plan for getting us to the airport on time!

Plans are necessary, but plans can only take us so far.

You see, plans are preparation. They fit onto notecards and into notebooks. They’re fun to talk about and brainstorm. But plans only take us up to the starting line. They don’t get us moving.

Purpose does that.

A plan says, here’s what I’m going to do and how I’m going to do it. If we’re really ambitious, we’ll make a Plan B or Plan C just in case things go wrong.

Purpose works differently. It drives us forward regardless of what goes right or wrong. Purpose says, here’s the direction I’m going in no matter what speed bumps try to stop me, no matter what detours try to derail me, I’m going to keep heading in this direction.

When we stubbornly hold on to our plan, we try to get God to follow our idea of how things should work. When we relentlessly hold on to our purpose, we surrender to the direction God wants to take us.