Breathe AgainSample

The Plans God Has

Have you ever had someone throw this verse from Jeremiah at you in an attempt to brighten the cold, dark reality of your world? It can feel like confetti at a funeral. 

As cancer was ravaging my body, the last thing I felt like I was doing was prospering. Who knew if I even had a future beyond cancer. So much for Jeremiah’s words. 

Soon after I’d finished treatment, I was asked to preach on “The Plans God Has for Us When Life Is Hard” based on this Scripture. As you can imagine, I was less than delighted. But as I dug deeper into the text, I was surprised to discover the Israelites and I actually had a lot in common. Exiled in a foreign land, wondering what had happened to the promises God made to their forefathers, they were having a terrible time. I resonated with their cries for help. 

Rather than explaining how God would rescue them, Jeremiah tells the Israelites to marry, have children, grow crops, seek peace with their neighbors, and pray for Babylon (Jeremiah 29:4–7). In other words, get on, live life, and stop waiting. Dig roots right where you are; be present in your present situation. The plans God has are here and now. 

As I look back over my years of grieving and treatment, I see that I found the most of what God had for me when I made the most of where I was, right where I was, without waiting for easier days that may or may not materialize. God has good things for us even when bad things have happened, and we find them right where we are. 

Sometimes that means acknowledging the good and the very painful at the same time. I don’t understand how, but hooked up to IVs and heading off to surgery I’ve felt comforted and alone all in the same moment. As I waited for pathology results I trusted God fully and yet doubted him deeply. But along the way I’ve learned this profoundly simple truth: life doesn’t have to be pain-free to be full.

Take a breath and repeat these words several time: “God has good things for me even here, in the midst of my hardest moments. I embrace the truth that I am loved, seen, and enough. I embrace the truth that God loves me and will never leave.”