When God's Plan feels Unplanned

Over winter break, I tried to fill out scholarship applications.  However, many applications that I filled out I were the same ones that I had filled out last year and had not received.  I've had multiple conversations with people about the best way to finance my education.  Over this break, I also finished paperwork for a loan.  I was raised with the knowledge that I would have to pay for my own education through loans, scholarships, and work.  People would ask me if I was a 21st Century Scholar.  The answer was no.  The one year that my family made too much money for me to be a 21st Scholar was also the year when I could have become a 21st Century Scholar.  And so, during my senior year of high school, I drew the conclusion that God has another plan for me to make it through my education.  When I applied for multiple scholarships, I hoped and prayed that I would get a big, full-ride scholarship.  And that didn't happen.  I got quite a few small scholarships which enabled me to pay for my first semester without pulling out loans.

Now, I'm going into my second semester and have taken out my first loan.  It is a small loan.  But you know what?  God still has a plan for how I'm going to get through school.  I don't know how it will come to pass.  But I know that if it's God's Will, then it will happen.

I have since realized that continuing my education is not only a intellectual learning experience but also a spiritual learning experience.  Because I do not know what God's plan is, I am learning to trust him more and more with each semester.  It goes against everything in my body to not have a plan.  I have always been someone who plans things out.  I like to have a plan A and a plan B and a plan C and a plan D.....you get the idea.  But now, God is teaching me that He wants me to let Him make plans.  God is revealing to me his plan.  He is doing it one puzzle piece at a time.  He is showing me that when I have faith in Him, and stop trying to solve my problems, He already had the plan and the solutions.  And so, someday, when I'm old and feeble, I'll look back and see what God's plan was for my life.  And I know that it will be better than anything I can imagine today.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20

Living in Reckless Abandonment for Jesucristo,

Jo