Master Plan

The sub job I have this week is a little slow, so it didn't take me long to read a short biography titled "It Is Well with My Soul: The Extraordinary Life of a 106-Year-Old Woman" by/about Ella Mae Cheeks Johnson. It's a quick read, but the kind of book that you want to slow down and savor at the same time.

Several quotes jumped out to me as I read and I thought, I have to remember that one. The first quote was, "I just wanted to see the wider world, and think about my place in it. When I look back over the course of my life, I realize I never had a master plan; I let the Master plan." This really struck me because so many times I can relate to that. I definitely don't have the life I thought I would when I was a child, and in the past 18 months I've done a lot of thinking about where my life is going and where I want it to go. And the truth is, even though I have goals, they remain vague, and I don't have a 'master plan' per se. I know that I want to honor and glorify God in all I do. I know that I want to be where he wants me, where I can use the gifts and talents that he has given me for his glory. I want the very best thing that is available: to know Christ- so I want to know him more deeply and more fully. And I want whatever leads me to those things. Which doesn't exactly answer a lot of the logistical questions in life... which is, I suppose, why I can rest, knowing that even without a master plan, the Master has a plan. What a comfort that is in this time of transition and wondering!

This is the other quote that really struck me: "The most important lesson I've learned over the course of a lifetime: not just surviving, or getting along, but being useful. Too often we remember, "Ask and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find," and we believe all we have to do is ask. When we don't get the response we seek right away, we think our prayer has gone unanswered. Patience is essential. Heaven is always here, within us, if we have the patience to discover it. Sometimes we pray for things that we aren't, in fact, supposed to get- things that are bad for us. Maybe "no answer" means we need more time to discover that answer on our own, or to find out that another choice is possible. Not having a prayer answered right away doesn't mean He doesn't care; maybe He thinks this is just not the time. Maybe there's something else in the future that will help. Compassion is patience in its essence. As it says in Psalm 27, "Wait on the Lord: Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart."'